Sword Art One Half
by brown phantom
Summary: Aincrad, a world of ten thousand people. A world where a single sword can take you anywhere. A virtual world, a high tech game that was just supposed to be for fun. But now it's not a game. It's win or die for everyone, even Ranma and his friends.
1. The World of Swords

_Special thanks to my friend Wolfpackersson09 who helped create this story with me._

CHAPTER 1 THE WORLD OF SWORDS

Within the country of Japan, in the giant metropolis that is Tokyo, there was a district named Nerima, one of the hotspots of the region. Not in any way regarding the wealth or influence of the country, or even regarding crime or education. What made Nerima a hotspot for Japan was that it seemed to be the Mecca of Martial Arts. Anyone and everyone who lived according to the art and has even set foot in the Kanto region of the Honshu island seemed to feel compelled, almost fated in a way, to head to that prefecture, and find a worthy opponent to test their skills on. Not everyone left the town victorious, but for the most part their unexplained need was fulfilled.

On a Friday afternoon, a girl was out riding her bike, looking like she had to get somewhere in a hurry. This girl was an exotic beauty with little to be compared to, but she was no delicate flower or anything of the sort. She was Shampoo, Champion of the Joketsuzoku tribe of China, making her one of the best martial artists in eastern Asia, and currently in Japan on personal business. Which was the pursuit of the one man she deemed worthy of sharing her life with, a boy by the name of Ranma Saotome.

When she first saw the Japanese boy, he had been a girl at the time, due to having a prior bad experience at a cursed training ground next to her homeland she was unaware he had been at. Their first interaction hadn't been so good, in fact bad enough to result in her chasing down the aquatransexual all the way back to his/her own homeland. When she later met him in his true form, her interest shifted from competitive to romantic. But sadly, she wasn't the only one who had that sort of interest in him.

Finding him was easy for her these days, now that she knew where to look. She had to work at a ramen shop making, serving, and delivering the food, so after all this time she had learned the best ways to get around the city and which ways Ranma himself favored taking. Finding him was a piece of cake, and when she found him she was very excited.

"Airen!"

Upon hearing her greeting, Ranma turned to look at her, his expression not unfriendly but not open either. Ranma was used to surprise appearances by people, both familiar and not, but most of them were anything but beneficial on his end.

Ranma was a man who thanks to years of trouble generated mostly by his father was used to dealing with people wanting to take him down, in some form or another. Why they never attacked his father directly he never knew. While Shampoo was no longer one of those people, her idea of bringing him up was one he wasn't sure was better. She wanted to be his wife, and even if she was the only one who wanted that, which she wasn't, he wasn't sure he wanted a wife in the first place.

To better understand Ranma one must start at the beginning of his story. Taken away from his mother at a young age, Ranma had been raised on the go by his father Genma Saotome, a man for whom describing in glowing terms required some serious thought. Genma had sought out to make his son the best martial artist in the world, and even though his methods to do so bordered on illegal, he had succeeded. If there was someone Ranma could not defeat, he had yet to encounter them. Of course, the key word there was 'could' not 'had'.

Being the world's best martial artist came with a price though, besides the blood, sweat, and tears poured into the endless training needed to get that far. The price was almost everyone he knew wanted a piece of him for themselves. Some wanted to tear him down, to take his place as the best, to avenge some slight they imagined he was guilty for and beating him would somehow make the problem right again. Some on the other hand wanted to wed him, to domesticate him, to be the one he loved and supported.

That last one wouldn't be so bad if people weren't trying to force an answer out of him, not even giving him the courtesy of exploring his options first. Three families each had a claim to who would become his wife someday, each one having a valid reason for it to an extent, and each one expecting him to choose right away. Two of the three girls, one of which Shampoo was, were actively trying to earn his love, while in a twist of fate the one who wasn't trying seemed to be the one who had succeeded.

That girl was Akane Tendo, Ranma first fiancee and classmate, and currently his company as he headed home after school, which he shared with her too. Akane came from a family that had been close friends with Ranma's own, studying the same school of martial arts, and their two fathers had long ago concluded that a union between their two children would be perfect for the schools. Unfortunately the manner in which they went about trying to get the two together had been... stupid to say the least.

Ranma and Akane had faced obstacles the likes of which only Romeo and Julet could sympathize with, but the greatest obstacle had always been themselves. Neither one in the beginning was ready for a relationship with the opposite sex, due to Ranma's self-image crisis because of his curse and Akane having prior bad experience at the hands of boys her own age in school. The year that has passed since then has been filled with over a dozen rivals both romantic and combative, matchmaking schemes and anti-matchmaking schemes, journeys out of town for any number of reasons, and ultimately one fight after another. Not only that, it even faced an involuntary wedding that had literally blown up in their faces, to both their relief and annoyance.

And yet rather than call it off entirely, Ranma and Akane were still together. Still acknowledged the engagement even though neither wanted to date let alone marry. Asking them why they kept the bond was pointless for by this time denials were so conditioned in both one could practically mimic their responses word for word. But there were two facts here one could not ignore, Ranma and Akane felt something between themselves worth preserving, and Ranma and Akane weren't official just yet.

Because of those two facts, Akane was quick to get a bit territorial when a girl like Shampoo happened to show up. "And where have you been?" Akane asked with hostility. Shampoo had been virtually absent from any and all of Ranma's activities for a week, something that was rather strange for the girl, so her sudden reappearance did little to make the young Tendo feel good. If anything it did the opposite.

"Got something to show you." Shampoo said as she hopped off her bike, got the kickstand down to keep her bike standing, and went for where she usually kept the food she delivered around town.

"What? Another drugged thing for Ranma to eat?" Akane accused.

Ignoring her, Shampoo held up not some box of food, but a small cardboard box that was the size of an average old VHS tape. It was colored blue and green with some yellow and white, and had some writing on it. "Shampoo spend all week finishing testing new game out for big company. Want share real game with Airen and others."

"A game?" Ranma and Akane asked, surprised and confused.

Shampoo nodded. "Here, check it." She held it out, and Ranma curiously took it and looked it over.

"Sword Art Online, a virtual MMORPG game. Create and develop your warrior and conquer the incredible castle of Aincrad. Improve your skills, form guilds with your friends, fight monsters and the undead. Can you survive all 100 floors?"

"You play these games?" Akane asked Shampoo, not expecting such an interest of the Chinese girl. Granted Akane had never really bothered to learn anything about her rival in the past, preferring that Shampoo just leave and never return, but somehow this seemed very unusual for the purple-haired girl.

Shampoo nodded. "Shampoo enjoy combat video games. Shampoo was offered to beta-test game two months ago, but always busy with work and other stuff. Saffron no make time management much easier."

"That's putting it mildly." Ranma noted, not fond of that particular experience in any way.

"Tomorrow game sold in stores. Many people already waiting in line to get copy. Shampoo given free game and enough NerveGear for friends to join."

"NerveGear?" Ranma repeated.

Shampoo nodded again. "Yes. Game very intense. You put on helmet and you inside virtual world. It like you really there in other world. It incredible. Want to play with Shampoo?"

Ranma smiled, intrigued. "What do you do in this game?"

"You fight monsters, get experience, find treasure, level up, and beat bosses. Normal game, but no magic."

"No magic? That's music to my ears." Ranma said happily, since magic had never made his life better. The best thing magic had ever done as far as he was concerned was undo a problem already created by a different magic.

"Wait, an RPG without magic?" Akane questioned. "I'm no expert on the subject, but doesn't that seem like a strange decision for whoever made this?"

"Want play?" Shampoo asked Ranma, then looked at Akane. "There enough gear for you and sisters to join if want. It really good game."

"Wait, you're actually inviting me to be a part of this?" Akane asked. 'Is this a trap or is she honestly this enthusiastic about this game?'

"Would Violent Girl prefer not to play?" Shampoo countered.

Akane frowned, knowing that refusing would be no different then giving Ranma permission to be with the Amazon, and forbidding him from playing would only make him want it more. In a way, she felt like Shampoo had just limited her options.

"Alright, I'll at least ask my sisters. But I'm not sure if they'd say yes."

Shampoo smiled. "Great. Meet at Nekohanten before noon tomorrow. We all have fun in game." She then hugged Ranma, took back her game, and left on her bike.

"That was strange." Ranma said, hoping that just once Akane didn't accuse him of being a pervert for being hugged by Shampoo. Ranma would be the first to admit that the youngest Tendo had one of the lowest tolerances of male-female interactions he had ever seen. And somehow through the system of logic that only women can understand, it was always something the male had to be punished for, even if it was a female like Shampoo responsible for every bit of it.

"Yeah it was. I have my doubts about that game. We should consult Nabiki, if anyone we know can find out if that game is what Shampoo claims it is, she can." Akane replied before heading home, this time no longer at a relaxed pace.

Ranma picked up his own pace to keep up. 'Thank you, for once.' He silently said to whatever force defused Akane just this once.

* * *

The Tendo home was one of the large ones in town without being considered one that belonged to a wealthy family. The front part consisted of a two story house and the back part was an average size dojo, both connected by an open hall and surrounded by a well kept yard complete with koi pond and encompassed by a wall. It's owner was Soun Tendo, a member of the Nerima City Council and respected man in his community, who lived there with his three daughters and the family of his best friend Genma Saotome.

"We're home." Akane said when she and Ranma entered the house and deposited their shoes.

"Welcome back Akane." The oldest daughter greeted. She was Kasumi, the caretaker of the house and the one who kept food on the table. She was also the nicest woman anyone had ever met, most people could not remember a day where she hadn't smiled.

"You won't believe what happened. On the way here, Shampoo came by-" Akane started.

"Old news Akane. And boring news at that." The middle Tendo daughter butted in while overhearing from where she was seated, enjoying a magazine on the couch. She was Nabiki, the one who acted as the accountant of the family which was vital given the people here would otherwise blow through the budget in a day if she weren't there to limit them.

"This is different. She shows up, but instead of trying the stuff she always does, she tells us about this game called Sword Art Online and invited us both to play it." Akane continued.

"Sword Art Online?" Kasumi asked, trying to make sure she heard it right.

"Yeah, it's a fantasy RPG with no magic but lots of fighting. Shampoo suggested it, and even got something she called NerveGear for us to play it with. She said she had enough for five people I think."

"I'm still unsure what a NerveGear is." Ranma said.

"NerveGears are very advanced virtual reality game systems. They're really popular because of the educational value and the fact that people can experience what it's like in the game itself. It uses some pretty high-tech stuff, and I heard that Sword Art Online is supposed to be really tough, not to mention exclusive with only 10,000 copies worldwide." Nabiki answered.

Everyone turned to her, making her shrug. "Yeah, I know about the game. So what?" She added.

"That's good. I wanted to ask you what you knew about it." Akane asked.

"The game is supposed to be really popular but very limited in quantity. So limited that all online copies available for purchase today were sold out in seconds, and tomorrow morning when it goes on sale the stores are likely to run out within fifteen minutes tops. I considered obtaining a few copies to sell for a profit, but realistically that's too unlikely to be accomplished." The mercenary answered. "People are waiting in line already for it, and none of my contacts are willing to spend the night in line just to buy something they can't even keep. The mark up wouldn't be worth it. Can't say I blame them."

"Wow, must be pretty kick-ass then." Ranma said, even more interested in seeing the game for himself.

"I'm surprised you two are just now learning about it. Didn't you hear it from your friends?" Nabiki asked.

Akane shook her head. "My friends aren't into video games."

Ranma shrugged. "You know any of my friends are more interested in beating me in real life. A game's not going to be important to them."

"Touche." Nabiki replied.

"What's all this about a game?" A fat bald man by the name of Genma Saotome asked as he entered the room. A powerful martial artist in his own way, but also one of the least admirable. One can say the only good thing he had ever done was raise Ranma to have stronger morals than he himself did, even though no one knew exactly how he did it. The general concession was Genma provided the perfect example of what NOT to do, which Ranma took to heart.

Standing next to him silently watching was his wife, Nodoka Saotome. A model of the traditional Japanese housewife but a bit too traditional to be considered up with current times. She was absent from the majority of Ranma's life by her own agreement, and when she came back into his life she presented him with a pledge that said he had to fit some ambiguous standard of manliness, one she had never once bothered to specify the terms and conditions of. Which would have been a lot more tolerable if his curse hadn't been involved, or if Nodoka hadn't tried to bond with Ranma's female half in an attempt to make the girl fit an ambiguous standard of femininity too.

The two Saotomes seemed to be a collection of mixed messages, making it rather understandable that Ranma rarely knew how to decide something quickly. At least Soun Tendo, the one parent of his family, was more direct in his messages, even if he had the spine of an invertebrate when giving them.

"Shampoo invited Ranma, myself, and even my sisters to play a game at her place tomorrow. Sounds fishy, but the game itself seems perfectly legit." Akane said.

"No need to get paranoid sis. Maybe she really just wants to play a game." Nabiki critiqued.

"Well paranoid or not you don't have time to be playing games boy, and you shouldn't be associating with Shampoo." Genma stated.

"There's no harm in a simple game dear, and it sounds like this girl's just trying to share something rather than try something shady." Nodoka calmly countered. "What is this game?"

Kasumi cleared her throat. "Well, from the description it is a game based on improving fighting styles against various threats. So I do not see what the problem is with playing the game itself, and I don't see any reason to decline Shampoo's offer as she paid for the NerveGears herself. I'm willing to give it a try if she's really extending the offer to me and Nabiki."

That was surprising of Kasumi, but Genma couldn't really think of a way to stop his son if Kasumi of all people approved.

"I guess we'll be going to Nekohanten for it tomorrow morning." Ranma said.

"You serious?" Akane asked, greatly hesitant to join in anything Shampoo recommended.

Nabiki stood up and stretched herself a bit. "Why not? What's the harm? It's not like she can actually _do_ anything to Ranma in virtual reality. Nothing worse than what she can do in real life. I'll even give it a try and see if it's as good as people say it is if it will make you feel better. Shampoo knows well enough to not put me and Kasumi in danger just to get Ranma's attention."

Kasumi nodded. "I agree. Besides, I've always wanted to play an MMORPG, but I was never able to."

"You never really seemed like a gamer before sis." Nabiki commented.

"It does get boring sometimes doing the same housework over and over again. A game would be a nice break."

No one knew what to say, it was hard to imagine that the ever serene Kasumi secretly had a desire to take part in combat games. Then again, none of them had bothered to deduce what exactly Kasumi thought about while she was doing dishes or cooking or cleaning. If asked they'd just assume she focused on the job which was why she was so good at it.

In retrospect it should have been obvious she thought about more. Yearned to do more.

"You think you can handle it?" Akane asked.

"It's just a game, it's not like it can really hurt me." Kasumi claimed.

* * *

Morning came the next day and as Nabiki predicted the stores selling Sword Art Online sold out within minutes. The attention it got even attracted the attention of the media and broadcasts were shown on the news of people waiting in line and showing off their enthusiasm for the game. Fortunately some people didn't have to wait in line or fight through crowds to have this opportunity, but most did.

"You came? I thought too-too violent girl would no show. Same with sisters." Shampoo said, actually surprised that all three Tendo sisters showed up at her home. In all honesty she half-expected only Akane to show up, and even then that would have been more to ensure the Amazon wouldn't get too friendly with Ranma then to play the game.

"Yeah, and I'll beat you in the game!" Akane boasted.

"I think it might be good to at least learn a bit about the game first." Kasumi said and Nabiki nodded.

"Shampoo can explain it first, since I the beta-tester here." Shampoo smiled. "Come in, I show you. NerveGear in bedroom."

"Have fun Son-in-law." Cologne said to the one boy in the group as they passed her then went upstairs

This was the first time anyone in the group had been to Shampoo's room. Not sure what to expect, it wasn't really surprising to see something best described as Spartan. All she really had was a futon, dresser, cubby, and a box for her weapons and armor. The most out-of-place thing was a computer, and connected to it was a bunch of metal helmets with wires. On the screen was an image of a conical steel building floating in the sky with the words Sword Art Online across the screen, letting everyone know the game was ready to play.

"Software is in computer. This here is NerveGear." Shampoo started, then held up a helmet. "First you place on head like so." She carefully put one helmet on her head then took it off before continuing. "Game will ask player to pat your body to... um... what word? Calibrate? Something like that." She added while patting her arms and torso to demonstrate.

"Must be to double-check that nothing's on you that can interfere with the hardware." Nabiki better explained. "But calibrate means 'to measure'. Why would a game need your measurements?"

"Sounds perverted." Akane huffed.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "It's a program Akane, it can't have urges. Even _you_ can't accuse a machine of being perverted."

Shampoo ignored the banter. "Once ready, we design avatar. Avatar is simple, usually has nothing but clothes and one sword. Change appearance with leveling and winning battles. We give name too, for now, maybe we just go with real name."

Kasumi nodded. "I agree. That way we can find each other in the game more easily."

"Also, once NerveGear on, real body no move no more. NerveGear put all mind in game, body still like asleep, only can breathe. So get comfy while play. Any questions?"

"How far did you get in this?" Ranma asked, holding one of the helmets.

Shampoo smiled proudly. "Got two months to test game. But schedule always busy, not lot of time for game. Shampoo only play maybe two weeks time total before trial ended. Got to level 4 in that time."

"That's not so impressive." Akane remarked.

"There one hundred levels in game." The Amazon pointed out. "And all testers had play solo, no groups."

"Well for acting completely on your own that's pretty good, especially considering all the time you had to spend out of the game." Kasumi complimented.

Shampoo bowed politely in thanks then put her helmet back on, adjusting her hair for it to feel more comfortable. "Go ahead, put on and pat down."

Kasumi and Ranma were the first ones to grab a helmet. Nabiki and Akane grabbed one too while Ranma and Kasumi were patting down their bodies. "You better not look at us when we have to do this Ranma." Akane all but threatened.

"Akane, save your energy for in the game." Kasumi insisted firmly, not looking at her sister since she had to pat down her legs too for full measure.

"What's the harm Akane? It's not like Ranma has the guts to _do_ anything when a girl shows anything remotely sexual." Nabiki teased before moving to ensure Ranma saw her pat down her own breasts for the calibration process, making Ranma blush and look away. "See?"

"Don't you have any self respect?" Akane fumed at her sister.

"Of course, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to point out I'm a woman." Nabiki replied. "You don't have to be a prude to respect yourself."

Akane huffed and ignored her sister, turning away from Ranma to do her own calibration.

"Hey Ranma, you going to play as a boy or girl in this?" Nabiki asked, half-teasing but half-honest too.

"Boy duh. Why would I want to play as a girl?" He replied.

"Actually, some gamers do exactly that. They make their avatars the other gender on purpose." Kasumi told him.

Ranma looked at her like she just said something impossible. "Why would anyone do that?"

"Dunno, maybe just for fun or because they actually want to be girls but can't afford to go to China like you did." Nabiki answered before finishing her calibration process.

Ranma shuddered at the idea. "I better not change with water in this game. That would suck."

"No magic in the game remember?" Akane pointed out. "And even if there was, why would your avatar be cursed too?"

"With my luck it would." Ranma lamented.

"Ready?" Shampoo asked, then got several nods. Shampoo laid down on her futon. "Get comfortable first. When ready, say 'Link start' to begin game. Shampoo teach more in game."

The four guests had to lay down on the floor since there weren't any other futons, heads pointing to the computer so the wires wouldn't get tangled or disconnected, then they closed their eyes.

"See you soon Ranma." Akane whispered to him, but got no response.

"Link start." All four said together, and the world in their eyes turned white with a lot of color coming at them, like moving down a tunnel. They saw that they were each in a black white room with a keyboard floating in the air. Each was alone rather than together.

"I guess this is where we enter our names, and choose our avatar appearance." Kasumi said to herself. Almost everyone else said the same thing. They each took the time to customize their Avatars and such, somewhat based on their real bodies but not identical since identical wasn't an option here.

When they finished they were asked to input their names, and like Kasumi suggested each of them gave their real name rather than an in-game alias. Then the game let them know that the links to their senses were up and asked for confirmation in starting the game. Each of them clicked the 'Yes' button.

'Welcome to Sword Art Online' appeared before each of them, then the rainbow tunnel appeared, taking them somewhere else.

* * *

When Shampoo woke from the Avatar selection, one she skipped since she had one saved already from before, she noted that the place was an open area with the ground paved with stone bricks, and surrounded by buildings and decorative plants, making it a sort of plaza. She looked at her hands and flexed them, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

"Hello game, Shampoo back."

One by one more players were starting to appear in the plaza, which was big enough to hold them all if they stood half a meter apart from each other. Shampoo looked around, hoping that because her guests were hooked up to the same system as her they would appear near her.

Luckily for her, they did. Or at least, she thought they did. It was hard to tell because the game didn't tell you what someone's name was unless you formed a connection with them.

"That you guys?" Shampoo asked. There were three girls and one boy, so the odds were good. One girl wore a light blue tunic dress with brown hair held in a long low ponytail. One girl wore a black dress shirt and red pants with brown hair kept short not unlike Nabiki. The last girl wore a red dress shirt with a white skirt and had short black hair not unlike Akane but a little longer. All three had swords held at their hips and leather chest guards over their breasts, which the black-haired girl seemed to have the biggest set of. Not unrealistically, but enough to compete with Shampoo in reality.

"Shampoo?" The boy asked. He wore a red shirt and black pants, and his hair was black and the standard model for a boy avatar thus lacking any pigtail. He had his sword strapped to his back, unlike the girls, and the standard leather chest guard.

Shampoo smiled, recognizing the voice. The Nervegear was programmed to base a player's voice on them saying 'Link start', though she had no idea how it worked for players using different gender avatars. "Glad Airen here. Now we have fun."

"We're here too you know." The black-haired girl reminded, her voice making it obvious she was Akane.

"Glad everyone here. But why Violent Girl go big chest if insult Shampoo all time for having one?" Shampoo said, sort of indirectly tearing the girl down.

"That's none of your business." Akane replied, refusing to look at the Amazon.

'Well, at least she won't have to worry about being called flat-chested.' Nabiki thought then looked to Shampoo. Her avatar had purple hair kept down and long, but lacking the decorative buns or front strands. She wore a pink shirt and light lavender pants along with the standard sword and leather chest guard. "Hey, I'm noticing something. All the girls here have exposed shoulders. Why is that?"

It was true, all of the female players wore outfits that exposed the shoulders even if they had sleeves.

Shampoo shrugged. "No idea, just in-game fashion style."

"So, what do we do first?" Kasumi asked and Shampoo smiled.

"First is know stats. See HP bar? It in top-left field of vision." She said while pointing to where such bar appeared within their vision. "Your name there in English. Think of Menu to open game menu." Shampoo demonstrated by waving her right hand down in front of her, making a screen appear in front of her like the air was a touch screen, giving her several options to access. Everyone followed her example.

"What's Col?" Nabiki asked, seeing something say she had 100 Col in her possession.

"That money of game."

"Just 100? That's not going to work for me." Nabiki stated.

"What's 'sword skill'?" Kasumi asked, seeing a menu entitled that.

"It fighting style of game using swords. Most simple, but some more complex and need access to perform. Think of it as secret style for fighting. This most vital to game. If no good in sword skill you die. We in Town of Beginnings, place where game start and player revive if die. Outside is good place for hunting wild boar, weakest creature in game." Shampoo explained.

"You get to hunt pigs?" Ranma asked. "Count me in."

"Oh great, now you're picking on P-chan even here?" Akane asked, bothered.

"You see P-chan here?" Ranma argued.

"Follow me, we practice sword skills." Shampoo insisted before a fight could break out.

* * *

It didn't take long to find the intended target. "There boar." Shampoo said, pointing to a large one minding it's own business.

"Perfect time to show sword skill. Airen should practice too." Shampoo said as she went to her menu again, and noticed that none of her items from her beta-test were there. 'That strange. It save my avatar but no gear?' She frowned for a moment, but closed the menu and made a simple strike at the boar. It first charged at Shampoo, and she dodged, missing it as well. Ranma instinctively got in the fight and started attacking it as well while the Tendo sisters just watched.

"To use most simple sword skill, hold sword in position like this." Shampoo explained as her sword started to shine while holding it. "Then wait for charge." It wasn't long before sounds were heard from the sword itself, as if it were vibrating. "When charge complete attack. Game almost always guarantee hit." She slashed in an arc and the boar was badly damaged then died, bursting into shining bits of broken data, followed by a screen telling Shampoo how much Col and Experience she had earned.

"Looks easy enough." Akane said as she came up to another boar in the field and tried to attack it with the same move. But the boar was quicker and hit her, injuring her a bit and dropping some of her HP by a small amount.

"You okay Akane?" Kasumi asked as she and Nabiki went to catch the girl.

"Yeah, but I feel a little dizzy. Boy, Shampoo wasn't lying when she said this game feels real."

Ranma, after jumping up, landed on the back of the boar and stabbed the sword in it for a while. The boar died and burst again into digital dust, telling Ranma what he had won.

"It good idea to practice using sword skill, or you no live in game. Also must take care of gear or it break." Shampoo added, sheathing her sword.

"You mean, this stuff will break?" Ranma asked as he noticed the sword was a little chipped.

"Yes. Weapon, armor, clothes, and food in game have durability. When no more durable it destroyed. Smithing skill repair armor and sword, and other skills help as well. We go into Town of Beginnings to buy new gear. I need mace for later." Shampoo said before then adding something as an afterthought. "Oh, you heal with item, food, or rest. HP restore over time, but Regeneration skill help heal faster."

"We should heal Akane first." Kasumi pointed out.

"I'm fine. I didn't feel any pain." Akane refuted.

"Look at HP bar at top left of sight. You see your own then." Shampoo advised.

Akane did that, and saw a green icon next to her name, and while her HP bar was still more than half full, it wasn't entirely full either. Looking at the others she saw green cursors hovering over their heads and green bars half-circling around them at chest level. "What are those cursors for anyway? I've been seeing them nonstop since we got here."

"Let you know who player and who NPC. Also let you know if player is PK." Shampoo said.

"PK?" Everyone asked, confused.

"Game talk for Player Killer. Player who kill other player for fun. Many like being bad guy in these." Shampoo corrected.

"Wow you sure know a lot." Ranma complimented.

Shampoo smiled. "Shampoo beta for reason. Martial arts no only hobby. Tendo girls find boars and practice sword skills now."

* * *

For the next hour everyone spent time trying out the technique Shampoo had shown them. Surprising, of the three Tendo's, Kasumi was the one to get the first kill in. Not only that, she had a satisfied look on her face. Not like she was glad she had killed something, but more like she was glad to be active.

When done and everyone had reached Level 2, the four followed Shampoo down a path, keeping an eye out for more threats. There were more boars around but they minded their own business.

"What's that up ahead?" Kasumi asked, pointing to what looked like a platform that in real life could not possibly stay balanced.

"Those villages. In game they like that. All are safe zone, meaning you no die or lose HP inside unless agree to duel." Shampoo informed them.

Ranma understood what a duel was, and so did everyone else. It was pretty obvious, a way for players to fight each other rather than a pre-programmed opponent. 'Bet I'm going to be in one of those sooner or later.'

"Wait, you mean we were in one of those things before we came here?" Nabiki asked and Shampoo nodded. "Is that why when we walked out that gate everything went white for a moment?"

Shampoo nodded again. "Yes. We teleport down to field to leave village. And teleport to get back in." She then led them to the base of the pillar holding up the Town of Beginnings, where there was a white circle insignia on the base. She placed her hand on it. "Enter, group." The insignia glowed white, and everyone's vision went white too. When it faded, they were back by the gate where they had left in the first place.

"Ah, bet that's going to take some getting used to." Akane commented, and Ranma nodded.

Back in the village, they avoided the plaza, choosing to walk down the streets instead where plenty of other players were too.

"When I look around, this is more like a city then a town." Akane commented as she looked around and even twirled about, not even caring that the Chinese girl saw. "Hard to believe this is really just a game. Shampoo, I gotta say thanks for letting us experience this. You did not exaggerate."

The Amazon looked rather pleased to hear that. "Welcome, this _is_ incredible world. In Aincrad, that this world's name, every level of castle is own world. You see that?" She pointed up, and everyone saw what looked like a ceiling instead of a true sky. "That next floor up. Beat boss monster here and we can move there."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ranma asked, enthusiastic about advancing.

Shampoo shook her head. "No Airen. Level up first. Now we find swords to use, and it better to find sword you comfortable with rather then sword that look good."

"Count me in too." Came a new voice and they turned and saw a new girl. She had long yellow hair hair cascading down her back and wore a dark blue blouse with pants the same color. On her back there was a two-handed battle ax, making this the first time the group had seen a player with a different weapon.

"Who are you?" Ranma asked.

"Can't you figure it out Ranchan?" The new girl asked.

"Ucchan, you're here too?" Ranma asked, happy that his friend was here, even if she was also a fiancee candidate.

Ukyo had been Ranma's oldest friend, though it was only recently he had found out she was and always had been a girl. And shortly after discovering that, he found out that his father is an act of selfishness and lack of foresight had gotten him engaged to Ukyo without bothering to do anything regarding the prior agreement to the Tendo family. Ukyo herself didn't mind being engaged to Ranma, even though she felt like she was trapped in the 'friend zone' with no clear way to advance for a real relationship.

"Yep, I overheard Shampoo tell you about the game, and I lucked out on a copy just in time. I've been looking for you since I logged in. So when I saw a boy in red next to a girl with purple hair I figured it had to be you. Her calling you Airen just removed all doubt."

"What about the shop?" Ranma asked a little concerned for his friend's main means of income, her okonomiyaki store.

"Don't worry too much. I should be able to keep up my work and play the game for a bit. Not like I'll be on for a long time right?" Ukyo cheerfully said, but then they heard a chilling and familiar laugh.

"Please tell me that isn't who I think it is." Ranma said, hoping that the self-deluded Kodachi Kuno wasn't anywhere in Aincrad.

Looking down the street, they saw some girl wearing a green dress and sporting a ponytail draw a lot of attention to herself. They couldn't see or hear much of her with the crowd around her, nor could they tell exactly what she was doing, but there was no doubt in their minds who this player was.

"Let's get out of here before she spots us." Ranma suggested.

"Yes, especially if her idiot brother is playing too." Akane agreed.

"She can't recognize us you know. Not when we don't look like ourselves." Nabiki pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. She doesn't care who looks at her just as long as they aren't looking somewhere else." Akane claimed.

The group, now including Ukyo, walked away trying to look normal. They took in the area, noting the obvious European Renaissance inspiration of the setting and clothes of the characters. There were kiosks selling various things run by NPCs, with merchandise ranging from weapons to accessories to even food. Prices were cheap, but not cheap enough that you could buy things in bulk. Not with just 100 Coll.

"Hey Ukyo, where did you get that ax?" Kasumi asked.

"I found it in a kiosk. Cost me everything I had but I'd say it was worth it."

Shampoo shook her head. "No, it only worth it for now. Weapon bought here has low durability. Meant to get used to fighting, not long term weapon."

Ukyo looked surprised. "You mean I got ripped off?"

"Mean should make it last, and work on Blacksmith skill to keep it strong until can get better one."

"C'mon, let's go find more things to fight. Not waste time in cities. That is the point of this game right?" Ranma suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Kasumi said, surprising everyone.

"You actually _want_ to get into a fight?" Akane asked. If she didn't know better she'd swear this wasn't really Kasumi.

"Why not? Like Ranma said that _is_ the point of this game. It would be boring to just sit on the sidelines while everyone else is having fun."

Nabiki lightly narrowed her eyes. 'I guess Kasumi needs this more than any of us do. Lord knows she's entitled to some excitement other than a new mess to clean up.' Then she smiled. "Alright, let's all go find something to cut up. But let's get some health recovering stuff first and do something about our weapons. Shampoo, lead the way."

* * *

It took a few hours, but everyone got supplied enough and got fighting out of their system. Shampoo also taught them the differences between solo playing and team playing, and they all started getting used to the idea of the switch tactic, where one player made the first move thus providing an opening for someone else to take advantage of. They also regained all the Col they had spent earlier, much to Nabiki's relief. The mercenary wasn't fond of wasting money, virtual or otherwise.

"Switch!" Shampoo said, after getting a mace and Akane, charged with a curved sword, managed to kill another boar.

"Kasumi, switch!" Nabiki had a two-handed sword that caught her eye and switched with Kasumi, who decided to buy a shield and keep her original sword. So far they split into two three-person parties. Shampoo, despite wanting Ranma in her party, was forced to team up with Akane and Ukyo. Ranma had partied with Kasumi and Nabiki, as they didn't have romance on the brain or a history of hitting Ranma if he did something wrong or stupid.

"This game is so fun. Hard, but fun. I didn't even notice the time flying by." Akane said as the sun started to set.

"Yeah," Ukyo checked the time and saw that it was around 5:30 pm. "Damn, I stayed on longer then I thought. I gotta log out and check on the shop. I'll make sure we play again on Sunday."

"Want set up link?" Shampoo asked.

"Pardon?" Ukyo asked back, confused.

Shampoo pulled up her menu, tapped a few buttons, and everyone in front of them got a small white screen saying 'Shampoo is offering to friend you. Accept or Decline'. "This way we track each other if separate and know if other player log in at different time."

"Good idea." Ranma said, pressing the Accept button. Kasumi and Nabiki did the same, then so did Akane.

Ukyo smiled. "Sounds perfect." She clicked on Accept too, then the menu gave her the option to create more friends.

A few more links were made and everyone had the whole group of six as their friend list.

Ranma smiled. "You know, it's nice how even though we all go crazy in the real world, here we can get along. Makes me wish we didn't have to log out."

"I know what you mean, but sadly I've got a job outside the game which I can't ignore. See you later Sugar." She then opened the menu and went to the settings to log out and return to her normal life. "Huh?"

"Something wrong?" Kasumi asked.

Ukyo just shook her head a bit. "I don't think so. Shampoo, you said you played this game before in the beta right?"

"Yes Shampoo beta-tester." The purple haired girl wasn't sure where Ukyo was taking this.

"Is there any other way to log off the game other then the log out option?"

Shampoo thought about it, but there was nothing she could think of. "Shampoo no know other log off way. Why?" The implication then hit her and the Chinese girl decided to check her settings menu, only to discover her log out button wasn't there. "What? Where it go?"

"Is something wrong?" Ranma asked.

"Everyone check menu." Shampoo told them, trying not to sound worried.

Everyone accessed their menu screens and scrolled over to a box that had three bars in it. The first said Option and the second said Help, but the third, the one that was supposed to say Log Out, was blank. Tapping on it did nothing.

"Maybe it was moved." Kasumi suggested.

Shampoo shook her head. "No, Log Out was always at first of menu. Need be easy to find in game."

"She's right, logging out is supposed to be the simplest thing anyone can do in a game. It's almost as if the option was removed." Nabiki commented.

"Could it be a bug in the software?" Ukyo asked.

"That's one heck of a bug." Akane stated. "And if it is, then why haven't we seen any other signs of defects in the game? I mean, everything else seems to be running perfectly here. Why would _this_ be the one flaw?"

"It no can be mistake." Shampoo noted. "Log Out there in beta test. No way they remove it by accident."

"Wait, you think someone actually took it away on purpose?" Ranma asked.

"All Shampoo know is no one sell game that customer no can stop playing. Bad for business. But why no Log Out? It no make sense."

"There _has_ to be some way to get back to the real world." Akane insisted. "We can't be stuck here."

"Log out?" Ranma said to the screen in more of a questioning tone. "I guess it's not voice-activated."

"Maybe you have to say it the right way." Akane stated. "End game. Save. Stop." Nothing was happening, even if she kept tapping the screen.

"What the hell is going on here?" Nabiki asked.

Just then, a bell was heard ringing in the Town of Beginnings, one that was a bit too loud to be normal.

"I get the feeling we're about to find-" Ranma started, but then all he saw was blue light. When the light faded they, along with a lot of other people, were now in the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings. "-out? What just happened?"

"Someone force teleport. That no should happen." Shampoo said, getting more uncomfortable with the situation.

"You know what's going on? Is this part of the game?" Ranma asked.

Shampoo looked at him with wide eyes. "Airen, you're speaking Chinese."

"What? No I'm not. I don't know Chinese."

"But Shampoo hear you speak Chinese." Shampoo claimed, then thought of something. "Can you understand what I'm saying now?"

"Yes, and that was pretty clear of you." Ranma replied.

"I'm speaking Chinese right now."

"But... it sounds like Japanese." Ranma pointed out, catching on to what Shampoo already theorized.

"Somehow the game is now auto-translating. But how? And why now?" Shampoo thought out loud.

"What's that?" Ukyo asked, pointing to the sky, drawing their attention away from their own subject of interest. Up there was a blinking red hexagonal icon that said Warning, and soon the entire sky was covered in identical red icons like they were tiles. Blood started dripping from them, frightening many already-nervous players, then it began to congeal in mid-air with electricity dancing around it for a moment until it took on the appearance of a faceless figure wearing crimson and yellow robes.

"Attention players." The figure said while spreading it's arms in a manner that was supposed to be inviting but lacked the intended effect. "I welcome you, to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, _I_ am in control of this world." He started.

"Is that supposed to mean something to us?" Akane asked.

Nabiki looked the most concerned. "Akane, that man, if he is who he says he is, is the man who created this game and the NerveGear."

"That guy made all this?" Ranma asked.

The faceless cloaked speaker continued. "I'm sure many of you have noticed something missing from your main menu, the Log Out button." He pulled up a screen himself for a visual aide. "Let me assure you this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is _not_ a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

"He _wanted_ this?" Ranma asked. "What the heck was he thinking?"

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain, and ending your life." The figure added, making many people in the crowd freeze up and murmur among themselves.

"Seriously? He sold us equipment that can kill us?" Ukyo asked, frightened of the implications. 'Please Konatsu, don't touch the gear. Do anything but that.'

"I can't get out!" One player shouted, having attempted to leave the plaza only to be halted by an unseen wall.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the Nervegear. An unfortunate decision to say the least." The figure continued. "As a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad _and_ the real world."

Everyone paled to hear that, and were frightened of the possibility that this would happen to them too.

'Is this why there's now an auto-translate? So there's no confusion over what he's saying?' Shampoo asked herself, knowing that not all 10,000 players in the game spoke Japanese fluently if at all. An auto-translate function would make communication much easier, but it suggested there was more to the game's programming then just gameplay.

Various screens popped up around the red-cloaked faceless figure. "As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important that you remember the following: There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to 0, your avatar will be deleted from the system. Forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

Everyone in the plaza was practically a statue as this sunk in. The message was simple but clear as crystal: If you died in the game, for any reason, you'd die in real life.

"There is only one way for any player to escape now, you must clear the game." The figure continued before pulling up a map of Aincrad. "Right now you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the Dungeon and defeat the Boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the Boss on Floor One-Hundred, and you will clear the game."

"Clear all one hundred floors on one life?" Shampoo asked herself, nervously. "I only got to Floor Four, and that wasn't on one life."

"Why should we believe any of the crap you're saying?" One of the more willful players shouted out while everyone else talked among themselves more.

The figure ignored the question. "Last but not least, I have placed a little present inside the item storage of every player. Please, have a look." The figure recommended.

Confused, each player checked their storage and saw something glowing at the top, something that said 'Mirror'. Still confused, everyone tapped it and a small rectangular hand mirror materialized in their hand. Everyone looked at it, then it glowed. Before anyone could react, they all started to glow at the same time.

The illumination faded and everyone felt a bit lightheaded, but it passed.

"Akane? Shampoo? Anyone?" Ranma asked, then froze when he saw them. Their avatars were gone, replaced by their real appearances. All except their clothes, those were still in the style of the game.

All around everyone was noticing that their real appearances were now evident and their avatars were gone. Some complaints were heard, since some players that first looked like girls turned out to be boys, some good-looking players turned out to be homely, and Akane was forced back into her original figure.

'Why didn't he let me keep the breasts?' Akane thought as she went back to being the smallest of the girls present. "This can't be real. He's got to be joking right?"

"The absence of a Log Out button was no joke Akane. There's no reason to believe this is a joke instead." Kasumi offered, trying to sound calmer than she was.

"But... but why? Why is this happening? Who would do such a thing to thousands of innocent people?"

"I think he's about to explain." Nabiki told her sister.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal."

'He's got a God Complex?' Nabiki asked herself. 'He's doing all this just because he wants to play God with a virtual world?'

"This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." The figure then disappeared in what looked like melting and deleting at the same time, then the surrounding area went back to normal.

Everyone was in a daze, their minds racing and panicking too much too soon to react on it in any way. But soon people began to act on their panic, screaming and forming a frenzied mob. Begging, demanding to be let out of the game, or screaming in fear of dying in some form or another.

Shampoo grabbed the people she invited and Ukyo.

"We need to leave town. Too many players are in a panic, maybe some will PK without even knowing it. I can get us to the next town over, where it will be safer and we can train." There was very little argument from everyone as they left the town, running back into the fields for a third time.

* * *

It didn't take them long to find somewhere they could stop and let their hearts stop pounding. They were outside a forest outside the Town of Beginnings, the one near where they did most of their practicing.

"There's a town further down this road. If we get there quickly, we can start getting stronger and be less likely to die in a fight." Shampoo advised.

Akane got right in front of the Chinese girl. "You knew this was going to happen! You bitch!" She accused and actually threw a punch.

"What the hell's wrong with you?!" Ukyo asked as she and Ranma ambushed and restrained Akane, even though Shampoo had dodged the punch.

"Let me go! She _knew_ this was going to happen! She brought us all here to get us killed! Why else would she invite all of us when she's never wanted anything to do with us before?!" Akane snarled, trying to break free.

"Akane, how can you accuse such a thing?" Kasumi said, worried on what happened to her sister.

"I'm with Kasumi on this. If she did what you're claiming, being trapped here wouldn't help her in any way. It got Ranma involved too, so it would be counterproductive." Nabiki added.

"Your sisters are right. If I wanted you dead then why would I have shown you how to fight earlier? Why would I teach you the game basics or help you with picking your own weapon? Wouldn't it have been easier to just kill everyone but Airen when I had the perfect opportunity?" Shampoo added, glowering at the youngest Tendo. "You always accuse me of many things, and I can live with that. But _this_ was downright uncalled for. You honestly think I'd invite everyone here if I knew this would happen? You really believe I'm that horrible a person?"

"Shut up! Am I supposed to believe this is just some big coincidence? Nothing is coincidence when you're involved!" Akane yelled, refusing to see reason in her anger.

Shampoo jerked as if hurt, and everyone else in the group looked at Akane like she just wished death on the Chinese girl.

Then suddenly something happened that no one expected. Ranma got a firm look on his face, released his hold on her, but he balled his fists while keeping them at his sides, and moved to in front of her. "Let me get this straight Akane. You're saying you believe that Shampoo _knew_ this was going to happen. She _knew_ none of us, even herself, would be able to log out. She _knew_ that dying in this game would kill us in real life. And she _wanted_ all of us stuck here." He stopped right in front of her. "Did I leave anything out?"

Akane tried to hide it, but right then and there, she was actually a bit scared of Ranma. He usually didn't get this imposing with her, making her feel like the small one for once. "N-no."

"If that's true Akane, then think about this, what's in it for her? How could this _possibly_ benefit her? If she wanted to kill you, what would have stopped her from doing it in the real world? And why would she invite Kasumi and Nabiki, two people she has absolutely no beef with, to risk their lives too?"

"I don't know, but this _has_ to be her fault. It's _always_ someone's fault." Akane insisted.

"It _is_ someone's fault Akane, but it's not hers. It's that Kayaba guy." Nabiki told her sister.

"Shampoo still had to know something." Akane claimed.

Ranma glared more, silencing the youngest Tendo. "Shampoo _does_ know something. She knows how to survive here. Like it or not, if we want to get out of this alive, our best start is listening to her."

Akane looked hurt at the fact that no one was taking her side, before looking at Ukyo, hoping that the other fiancee candidate would support her if no one else.

"If you think I'll side with you, then no. Shampoo knows the game better then us, and that means she knows how to keep us alive."

Akane was stunned at the fact that Ukyo wasn't siding with her. Then she looked to her sisters, and glared. "Well then I'd rather solo then stay with that murderous slut!"

That was when Nabiki and Kasumi looked worried.

"Please Akane, don't leave the group. It's too dangerous to go on your own, and like it or not Shampoo _does_ know the game better then you do." Kasumi tried to reason, but Akane didn't seem to listen.

"I'm going! I'm not going to stay with her!"

Nabiki then came up and slapped Akane across the face. There was no drain of health, but it stopped her before the youngest girl in the group could say more. "I'm the only one allowed to be selfish in this group, and I say you're staying! I'm not letting my little sister get killed because she's too proud to admit she needs help!"

Akane was stunned, too stunned to even be angry. Not once in her life had anyone slapped her. Heck she couldn't even remember the last time someone actually tried fighting back. As a result, she may have gotten a little too comfortable with the idea that she could dish out pain onto others. But Nabiki just proved that there were people willing to hit back.

And Akane did not like that.

The shock faded and the rage returned. On sheer impulse, Akane roared and tackled her sister to the ground before pounding her with alternating left and right punches like a madwoman. Akane wasn't thinking about what she was doing, she wasn't thinking about anything at all. The only thing on her mind was how offended she was at the attitude the others were giving her.

Akane's anger had always been infamous, but there was a reason it was so reoccurring. Akane tended to think of things and people in terms of absolutes, black and white but no grey. You were either on her side or out to get her, no exceptions. And her ability to trust others, even family to some degree, was more circumstantial than anything else. As if she based a person's trustworthiness more on what they were doing now then what they had done in the past.

So when everyone was trying to convince her Shampoo was not some mastermind behind this death game they were in, what Akane heard instead was everyone siding against her. Sounding like they'd rather be with Shampoo more than her. Sounding like they trusted Shampoo more than her. And when Nabiki slapped her, Akane saw that as a forbidden betrayal, and all rationality left her.

Rationality only came back to her when she felt some strong hands grab her and force her off her sister. "Let go of me!" She yelled, only to get another slap, this one from Kasumi. "Kasumi?" The shock of her ever-pacifist sister doing this was too great to trigger any white-hot blind assault in her.

"Akane do you have any idea what you just did?!" Kasumi screamed, actually screamed, at her sister. Kasumi looked mad, which was so uncharacteristic on her face that it was frightening her sister. "You almost killed Nabiki!"

"What?" Akane asked, then looked at Nabiki. The mercenary girl was lying on the ground, and a meter around her that was normally green was close to empty and colored red. Shampoo knelt over her and made her drink from a bottle full of some red liquid, which was raising the bar to a yellow color and half-full.

"Did you forget already? Dying here means dying in the real world!" Kasumi yelled. In her peripheral vision she saw that the green cursor above Akane was now orange, but ignored it for now.

"But... but I didn't... how do we even know that's for real?"

Kasumi's eyes almost burst into flames. "Are you seriously willing to take that chance?! Are you?! Are you really willing to let your own sister die?!"

Akane collapsed as the implications of the situation finally hit her. Everyone here was at risk for death. Death in this game was as real as death in life, and even if it wasn't, that was a chance she couldn't take. And hitting someone wasn't going to make the problem go away this time. It would only make it worse.

The young Tendo started to cry then went up to Nabiki who was sitting up. "Nabiki, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

Nabiki didn't look as forgiving as Akane had hoped. "Yeah? Well you tend to hit without thinking a lot. Usually not me, but I'm sure Ranma would agree with me. This time sis, people can _die_ from it. Get that? Die. Learn to keep your hands to yourself if you don't want blood on them." It was a bit harsh but no one could blame Nabiki for saying it.

Akane looked to Ranma, hoping he'd forgive her, but he looked disappointed, making her feel worse.

Ukyo kept quiet, but she wasn't sure if Akane could be trusted to keep her cool in the party. Shampoo, however, made her thoughts on the matter known.

"This is why I always called you the too-too violent girl. If this is how you're going to behave, maybe we're the ones better off without you."

Akane was still shocked at what she did, but Shampoo was right. She got up to leave, this time in shame rather than pride, before Shampoo added more. "But if you go off on your own, you'll die for sure, and I don't want that on my conscience. If you can just hold your temper back, then you can become useful. I invited you here because I wanted you to have fun. I thought maybe we could have something to enjoy other than fighting over Airen. Even I get lonely and want friends you know."

'Shampoo... actually wanted to be my friend?' Akane asked herself, finding it hard to believe, but not wanting to immediately assume it was some trick to hurt her. That force of habit had done more harm than good.

"I think we should get going, it's getting dark, and I think it might be a better idea to reach the next town before we run into a lot of monsters." Ranma said

"Agreed. Lead the way Shampoo." Ukyo said and the Chinese girl did, taking them towards the next town once more.


	2. All's Fair in Virtual Love and War

CHAPTER 2 ALL'S FAIR IN VIRTUAL LOVE AND WAR

Night came and the group of trapped players had yet to reach their destination. The distance seemed to be longer than Shampoo recalled and it took them through a second forest, which they were currently in. And if that wasn't bad enough, they were all really hungry and tired.

"Food here only satisfies the mind's hunger. Our real bodies get nothing from eating here." Shampoo said, trying to ignore her own hunger. The rations they were eating, which was an automatic entry in their storage upon initial log in, took away the thought of hunger but not the lingering sensation they got from their real bodies.

"Gotta admit, this tastes real." Ranma said while eating some bread. "Not the best, but it's like I'm really eating bread right now."

"I wonder how long we can last if our real bodies can't eat or move." Kasumi thought out loud, sounding nervous.

"Our only hope is someone outside moves our bodies into hospitals and puts us on life support until the game is over. Without disconnecting us from the game." Nabiki commented. "Problem is who back home has the sense to do that instead of taking the NerveGear off?"

"I don't think Pops and Mr. Tendo would ignore someone telling us we could die. Both of them want the dojo to be united too much to risk our lives like that." Ranma mentioned.

Akane nodded. "Yeah, our fathers are so dead set on getting us hitched even _they_ couldn't be so quick to act on the first thought that entered their heads at a time like this." She paused for a moment. "Could they?"

No one had an answer for that, which only made Akane more uncertain.

"Great-grandmother will also get us some help. She'll know what to do. She'll keep us alive." Shampoo added, providing some relief to them. If Cologne could get to them first, and odds are she would since their bodies were at the Nekohanten, they'd be safe.

"Well, I know someone's going to be getting me out sooner or later. I get the feeling that a lot of people are getting rushed to hospitals across Japan. Anyone with a Nervegear on is goi-" Suddenly Ukyo just stopped and slumped over, like she passed out.

"Ucchan!"

"She's still alive." Everyone looked at Shampoo, while still worried about the okonomiyaki chef before she continued. "Her body didn't shatter like broken glass. That means she's still alive."

"That's a relief." Nabiki said and sighed. "This must mean she's being moved to a hospital in real life, resulting in some kind of sleep mode here. Only explanation I can come up with."

"How do you know how someone looks when they die in here?" Akane asked Shampoo. "I thought you said you had to play by yourself."

"Whenever I saw something in the game die, like the boars we fought earlier, it always burst into pieces. Sort of like a firework in terms of appearance. I assume that's what a player looks like as they die too." Shampoo explained.

Everyone just sat down beside a tree, waiting for what happened to Ukyo to happen to them too. It didn't take long, soon Ranma, the Tendos, and Shampoo slumped to the ground like they were passed out too.

* * *

"What happened?" Ukyo asked as she woke up. 'Wait, was that real?' She looked around and saw she was in a forest and cursors hovered over everyone's heads, making her groan which morphed into a yawn. "I guess it was. That sucks."

Everyone else was waking up too, and they had the same basic reactions as Ukyo. "Anyone hurt or missing?" Kasumi asked.

"No, but I don't feel so hungry anymore." Nabiki replied.

"They must have us hooked up to life support now." Akane said, crawling closer to Ranma for a sense of comfort. No one was in the mood to refuse her. "We could be here for a long time, couldn't we?"

Shampoo nodded. "This game has 100 floors, and 100 Bosses. A near infinite number of quests and challenges to go with it. And that's not even taking into account the Mini-Bosses or other threats I haven't experienced yet. Heh, it's not so bad when it's just a game, but now..."

Nabiki nodded. "Now it's pretty damn daunting. And we have to do it all on one life."

"Shampoo, as current group leader, what do you suggest?" Ranma asked, surprising everyone.

"You think I should lead?" The Amazon asked to clarify. She, like the others here, never would have expected Ranma to let someone else take the lead of a group he was in.

The pigtailed young man nodded. "You're the only one here who's not wandering around blind. Right now the rest of us don't know what to do or where to start, but you do. I think for now, the rest of us don't really have a choice but to follow your lead."

Shampoo looked over the others, expecting some objections. But instead, she got reassuring expressions.

"He's right." Akane admitted. "For better or worse you _are_ the voice of experience here. If you can't guide us, who here can? We need you." She then sighed, as if the next part was hard to admit. "I need you."

This actually touched the Chinese girl. Never before had she felt wanted by the people around her. Tolerated, but never wanted.

Her resolve strengthened, Shampoo sat up straight. "Right, here's what I know. We're all Level 2 with little money, weak weapons, and no armor or equipment. And I think we've used up all our rations and probably have one thing of medicine left. First we change that. We need to battle weak threats to get more experience and money, work our way up to buy better weapons and more. I can find quests to get more of what we need and some special items that wouldn't hurt to have. For now, we should avoid trying to find the Boss. We need to get stronger first."

Nabiki nodded. "Right, every gamer knows not to go for the Boss right away. You need to work your way up first."

Shampoo nodded in agreement. "Remember, in here our real life strength means nothing. This is a leveling game, strength here is based purely on stats and levels. Our martial arts can barely do anything here if someone else has a higher level. Forget everything you can do in real life, instead work on in-game skills only. Also, ki doesn't exist in this game, since these aren't our real bodies."

"So that means I can't use the Moko Takabisha or Hiryu Shoten Ha here?" Ranma asked.

"No you can't. Ki cannot be created artificially. And ki isn't registered as a sword skill or unarmed skill either. That means we all have to work on our skills and levels." Shampoo finished, contemplating what to do next. "The Amaguriken might work here, but it's not going to be as strong as you're used to. Not yet anyway."

"So our real life skills aren't really impossible or obsolete, just reduced back down to beginner." Ranma noted. "Well, at least that applies to everyone who wants to hurt us too. Like the Kuno's."

"I guess we should see what skills we have and work on them." Nabiki added. "How do we know what skills we can learn in this game?"

Shampoo pulled up her menu. "Check your Skill Menu. It should give you two options, the Skill List and the Skill Inventory. The Skill Inventory is essentially a list of every skill you _can_ learn, and the Skill List tells you all the ones you _have_ learned and how strong they are."

Everyone curiously pulled up their menus and went for the Skill Inventory. There they saw options such as Evasion, Seeing, Listening, Running, Cooking, Appraisal, Forging, Beast Taming, and much more.

"Battle Healing?" Akane asked, noticing one that piqued her curiosity.

"Battle Healing and Regeneration help you heal. They recover lost HP for you, though they're not as good as medicine or healing crystals." Shampoo explained.

"Healing crystals?" Everyone repeated.

"There are these jewels in the game called crystals that can do things for you. Anything from teleport to heal to even repair weapons, but each can only work once. I don't remember seeing any on Floor One, but I was able to buy some on the next one up. So for now don't worry about them."

"So, how do we start a quest? We might as well worry about something we can do something about." Ranma asked.

"Quests start when a player talks to an NPC. The NPC then gives a quest along with instructions on what to do. Some are easy, some are hard, some even come in chains. But they always give a reward when completed. Since we're on the first floor, most of them won't be difficult. Unless the programmer altered that too."

Suddenly they heard some rustling, and halted the conversation. "It must be a monster." Ukyo said, readying her ax. Akane followed her lead, as did everyone else. Everyone except Kasumi, who unlike before was shaking a bit now.

"We should take turns guarding each other when we sleep." Shampoo started when nothing came out. Whatever they heard had either passed by or wasn't interested in attacking them. "Be on alert all times in the fields. We were lucky nothing attacked us before, but luck is never permanent."

Kasumi sat down, trying to control her trembling body. "Is it possible we can find a safe place and just wait for someone to end this game?"

If seeing Kasumi enraged was scary, seeing her frightened was downright... well, frightening. For as long as anyone had known her, Kasumi had been an emotional pillar of strength. A perpetual eye of the storm, surrounded by chaos but forever untouched by it. She was the one thing Nabiki and Akane could always count on to be supportive. But now, seeing the situation get to her, breaking her facade...

If Kasumi couldn't handle the situation, who could?

"I don't think it's going to work that way. If everyone does that then we'll be trapped here until we die. I'm going to try and clear this game." Ranma proclaimed.

"Airen's right, because let's face it, many of the players are probably thinking that way. Stay somewhere safe and let someone else do the fighting. But if we all do that then no one will get out." Shampoo said, but paused when she heard more rustling. "Something's back." She got on her guard and a small pack of wild wolves showed up, growling with apparent hunger.

Shampoo drew her sword. "Get ready. These are stronger then boars."

Everyone got ready again except for Kasumi, and the wolves pounced as one. Akane moved to protect her frightened sister, but her draw wasn't as quick as she was so the wolf got her.

"OUCH!" Akane yelled. 'Wait, we can actually feel pain in this game now?'

"Akane!" Ranma ran to her and managed a single thrust to eliminate the wolf. He looked at her health bar which had dropped a bit, but it wasn't in the yellow yet.

"Switch!" Nabiki did just that as another wolf came, and Shampoo, with her sword properly drawn, struck a wolf that was after Nabiki. A third wolf would have possibly ripped Kasumi in two, if it wasn't for Ukyo striking it from behind with her ax. The fourth and final wolf came up and Nabiki, who had been charging up her sword skill, lashed out and practically bisected it.

Once the fighting was over, screens appeared in front of everyone who had killed a wolf, telling them they had earned some Coll and Experience. Nabiki's screen said she earned an item. Curious, she pulled up her menu and saw something new in her inventory. "What's this?" She tapped it, and in her hands materialized a wolf pelt, the kind a trapper would love to have. "Hmm... bet this would sell for a nice price." Rather than put it away, Nabiki draped it over her back like a shawl, tying the legs in front of her to hold it in place. "Or maybe I'll just keep it." She added, putting the head of the pelt atop her own like a hood. "How do I look?"

"Interesting look on you Sugar." Ukyo complimented.

"Yeah I agree, but why would you wear it?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki shrugged. "Mostly just for fun. And let's face it, my main talent when fighting an opponent is my ability to intimidate them more than attack them. Appearance helps that, and this would make me look more intimidating." Nabiki said with a smile that turned sly. "Yeah, I think I'll keep this. Looks too good on me to sell."

"Why didn't you fight?" Shampoo asked Kasumi, as she kept shaking.

"I-I couldn't." The eldest Tendo stammered out, but just curled up into a ball and kept everything out of her mind, or tried. "It was fun while it was just a game, but now... I'm terrified of dying for real."

Nabiki just shook her head for a bit. "Look, how about we get some sleep? We might be better suited to fight and reach the town alive if we aren't tired and on edge."

"I agree, and I'll take the first watch. Who wants the next one?" Shampoo replied to Nabiki's statement, and Ranma shot his hand up.

"I'll take a four hour watch." Ranma suggested and then Ukyo shot her own hand up.

"I'll take over after Ranchan, anyone else want to take it?" There weren't any more volunteers.

With rest not coming easily, everybody but Shampoo tried to get some sleep. It was much easier said than done.

* * *

They managed to get through the night without another incident and had fought their way from their temporary campsite to the town. Kasumi, this time, didn't freeze up, but she still seemed highly unconfident about what she could do.

Shampoo got them into the village and everyone looked around. So far they saw no other players, just NPCs obeying their assigned roles in the game.

"What do we do now?" Kasumi asked.

"You find an inn and get us a room." Shampoo said. "This is a Safe Zone, no one can die or lose HP in here. And inns give even more safety. We need you to not be panicked before you go out and fight."

"Maybe Kasumi shouldn't be in any fights." Akane suggested.

"Actually, I think that's a bad idea." Ranma said.

"Why?" Akane asked, bothered by the idea that Ranma was basically suggesting Kasumi risk her life needlessly. But she sensed she was on thin ice already with the group and didn't need anyone getting more mad at her. The fact that her cursor was orange only reinforced it.

On the walk over, Shampoo had explained that according to her guidebook from her beta days, cursors were supposed to indicate if a player was someone to be wary of or not. Green was the normal status, but an orange cursor meant that the player had physically assaulted another player or attempted to kill them. It would wear off in a couple of days if she didn't attack another player again, but if she or any play actually killed another player, it would turn red. And Shampoo couldn't remember if that was permanent or not.

"We want to get to the end right?" Ranma asked, and everyone nodded. "Leaving someone behind would not be a good idea. You want Kasumi to stay where it's safe and the rest of us go out fighting? That might have worked back home, but not here. Imagine the kind of stress that will put on her, us going out with her unable to know for sure if we're ever coming back."

Akane slowly nodded in understanding. 'That's exactly how I felt when you went to go undo what Herb did to you. It was a horrible feeling, not knowing when or if I'd ever see you again Ranma.'

Ranma gently put a hand on Akane's shoulder. "Besides, if she moves from town to town with us, she's going to be out in the fields at some point. Better to prepare now rather than wait until she has no choice."

"I understand and agree. But still, maybe there is a way to keep her safe." Akane countered.

"No, he's right." Kasumi said, surprising her sister. She spoke with closed eyes. "I can't spend the entire game hiding. I came here because sometimes I get tired of being in the background. What's the point of being here if I'm just going to spend time here as a housekeeper? I don't want to be the deadweight of the group. I just need to stop being afraid."

Akane was speechless, not expecting her docile sister to admit a desire to stop being docile, held back only by a fear of what that entails.

"Well, let's see what we can get done here. Plus we should visit a blacksmith NPC and get our gear repaired." Nabiki suggested. They took off to the closest smith, after noticing that they had nicks in their gear. It seemed each fight weakened their gear. 'I hope once we get stronger weapons repairs won't be needed so regularly.'

"I definitely want to get my shield repaired." Kasumi mentioned.

* * *

They now had their gear repaired and finally managed to get a room and some food, even if it was just virtual food. Mental hunger apparently was felt in the game as real hunger. But luckily their real life bodies were bound to be hooked up to nutrition supplements to keep them fed, but not satisfied.

There was a little problem regarding the inn. The fact was the group didn't have much money left, and after pooling it all together they could afford one room for one night. One room, single, that all six of them would have to share, and came with only two beds. But if there was one good thing about the stress of the situation, no one wanted to start some argument about sleeping arrangements just yet. Not even Akane.

"Alright, we've got to train, and we need a quest. What kind of quests can we get here?" Ranma asked, taking a sip of water as they sat outside on some benches, letting a fountain fill up some water bottles for him and the others. Fortunately for him he hadn't had to experiment to see if his curse activated in the game world. Even if ki didn't exist here, the curse seemed to follow it's own rules.

Shampoo gave it a bit of thought. "I can't recall any for this specific town. Most nearby might be to kill a monster and collect prize or find lost item in field. Good for a start if nothing else." It made sense that the first floor had only the basic quests.

"Ranma-darling/Foul-sorcerer!" came the voices of two individuals that they really didn't want to deal with, and it was a good thing they were in a safe zone, both parties. Even then it wasn't that bad as Ranma managed to dodge the curved strike and almost-tackle of two of the most insane individuals he knew: Tatewaki and Kodachi Kuno.

"Whatever you want, leave me out of it." Ranma demanded.

As always, the Kuno siblings were in no mood to listen. "Ranma, you are behind this terrible set-up! This entire trap reeks of your doing!" Tatewaki accused while charging at the pigtailed young man.

Akane jerked a bit. 'Is that what I sounded like?'

Ranma intercepted with a sword to block, catching Tatewaki off guard. "You're not the only one with a sword anymore Kuno, and I'm guessing you're only Level 1 here."

"Nonsense. I am the Blue Thunder of Furinkan and the greatest swordsman in Nerima!"

"In case you haven't noticed Kuno-baby, you're not in Furinkan or Nerima anymore. You're in a game, where _everyone_ starts as Level 1, even you." Nabiki interjected. "And this is a Safe Zone, nothing you do here can actually hurt Ranma."

'Better not remind them of the duel system.' Shampoo thought, tempted to hit the interlopers with her mace just for the satisfaction of it.

Tatewaki looked at Nabiki, and seeing her covered with a wolf pelt shocked him enough to back away from her and by extension Ranma. "Nabiki? What are you wearing?"

"I believe the proper term is 'spoil of war'." The mercenary answered, caressing the fur on the arm for a moment. "Looks nice, my very own fur coat. And it didn't cost me a thing."

"You look like a barbarian." Tatewaki criticized.

Kodachi seemed to ignore the fur on the middle Tendo but concentrated on her brother. "I do not believe that my darling Ranma would do this, but the ones to blame are either this harlot," She pointed to Akane. "Or that pigtailed wench that you are smitten with."

'Great, even when she sticks up for me she blames me.' Ranma thought as the siblings bickered a bit and Ukyo slammed her fists down, getting a notice on the table that said 'immortal object'.

"I believe you too should leave. It is already a stressful situation and neither Ranchan or Akane are to blame for it as the culprit already made himself known. Did you two forget the big red guy in the sky yesterday who confessed to everything?"

"Look Kuno, both of you. We've just started this game and we're all tired of playing the blame game at the same time. Go find someone else to bother, 'cause we don't want your crap." Nabiki stated and it was a bit more intimidating with the wolf fur that she wore.

Kodachi ignored the mercenary and made another attempt at embracing Ranma. "Ranma-darling I'm so glad you're here. We can have all the time in the world to be together."

"Let me go!" Ranma demanded, trying to get her to stop hugging him. Luckily Akane came up and grabbed the gymnast's ponytail to get her attention.

"We are not taking your crap here." Akane insisted while pulling the girl away, her strength not as much as she remembered it being. Of course the same was true for Kodachi so she couldn't hold on despite the fact Akane was pulling her hair out.

Kodachi released Ranma, rubbed her sore scalp, and glared at Akane. "How dare you? Well, I do hear that killing is a part of this game." Right then, she got a sword to her throat but it wasn't touching her skin.

"You so much as point a needle at Akane, and you'll wish you had never even met me." Ranma threatened in a cold tone that betrayed the fiery look of his eyes.

Kodachi for once was actually afraid of Ranma, and her fear was increased when Shampoo walked up drawing her own sword.

"This isn't a game, this is real. Death is real here too. We don't want anyone to die, but if a crazy girl like you thinks it's okay to kill someone here, then maybe this game is better off without you in it." Shampoo threatened.

Panic getting the better of her, Kodachi fled. Tatewaki saw her run, and went after her, giving Ranma a dirty look like he had done something inexcusable.

Everyone sheathed their swords and sighed. "I guess it's not just the characters created by the game we have to watch out for." Akane groaned, then turned to Shampoo. "By the way, right there you said it was wrong for Kodachi to want to kill me. Since you yourself once said 'Obstacles is for killing', wouldn't you approve of her desire?"

Shampoo shook her head. "That phrase is just a quote from my home, a proverb if you will. I'm not a murderer. If I was, why would you still alive before the game even started?"

"She's got a point." Nabiki commented. "If she wanted to kill you, why would she use amnesia shampoo on you instead when she had the perfect chance?"

Akane was shocked once more, and then started to think about it. She thought from how it was when Shampoo did stop pursuing Ranma in the effort to kill him after finding out what happened, and every time she did something it never ended with anyone dying.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense, and I'm sorry for accusing you yesterday."

"I accept, but I still think you need to learn not to jump to conclusions so much. I'm a proud fighter, and no true fighter needs to kill someone to prove their strength." Shampoo added and they finished up their drink. "I'm getting hungry. Let's go make some money so we can buy lunch."

"Sounds great, let's find a quest that pays well." Ranma suggested, getting nothing but nods as responses.

* * *

Having a beta tester in their group was rather fortunate, especially since it appeared Kayaba hadn't changed the quests in the game and Shampoo was able to spot a familiar quest that someone hadn't beaten her to yet.

"Why do we have to do this?" Akane asked while each one of them was lugging a barrel with them. Each one was lighter than it looked, but too heavy when someone tried to grab more than one. The quest they were currently on was given to them by an NPC who gave each member of their party a barrel that couldn't be opened, and told them they had to carry them all undamaged to another village where they would get rewards for the effort.

"It's an easy quest that doesn't require fighting. Builds up Experience, that always helps a lot." Shampoo explained.

"Thanks, I'd feel better being in fights when my levels are up." Kasumi said. "Since it's no longer okay to die in a game, I'm not in a mood to be careless about playing."

"I don't think anyone here is." Nabiki said. 'It figures Kasumi's courage was circumstantial. It's easy to be brave when you're safe, that's why the first couple of hours she was like a different person. But now the safety net is gone, and Kasumi's fear came back in full force. I wonder if anything can make her feel safe again here.'

"Guys, while we have a moment, there's something I think we should get out in the open." Nabiki added. Everyone kept walking but showing she had their attention. "I think we're going to be here for quite a long time. I mean, there's no way we're getting out of the game tomorrow. The sad truth is, we could be in this world for years."

"Years?" Akane almost yelled while almost dropping the barrel. She caught it, which was good because it wasn't an immortal object.

Nabiki nodded. "Yes. I doubt that guy would go to all the trouble of creating this world just to let it be easy to conquer. There's a hundred floors here and Shampoo only got to the fourth one. Keep in mind she was beta-testing it, meaning her job wasn't to have fun but to find bugs and show the game makers how difficult it was to level up under the obstacles they created. I bet now the game's been adjusted to ensure no one could get too high too quickly."

Shampoo looked down. "This is all my fault. I should never have played this game."

Ranma came up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "You had no way of knowing this was going to happen. You just wanted to play a game and share it with us."

"Yeah, and like I mentioned this game is supposed to be tough to play." Nabiki spoke up and had everyone's attention once more. "So that means we need to stick together or something. That includes setting aside any business in real life."

"What kind of business?" Ukyo asked, but the answer was obvious.

"I think she means deciding on Ranma's fiancee." Kasumi spoke up in a more normal manner for her, getting everyone's attention. "Well, it seems that a lot of trouble comes from the issue of who Ranma is going to marry."

'Did they have to bring that up now?' Akane thought, exasperated. 'Even here I can't go one day without that being mentioned in some manner.'

"It's true, and each of us has a claim in some way." Shampoo added as they continued with the quest. And it _was_ true. Ukyo and Akane both had parental agreement and Shampoo had one because of her tribal laws. The choice was ultimately Ranma's to make, but no one was really giving him the opportunity to choose. Everyone was trying to choose for him.

"Yeah, I guess we've gotta set that aside for now and concentrate on playing." Ukyo agreed.

"So we in agreement? Until the game is over, the fiancee wars are officially on hold?" Nabiki asked, hoping she had gotten through to the three competitive girls. 'Boy, if only it were this easy in real life.'

None of the girls in question were eager, because the current situation did pretty much give them a great opportunity to get Ranma's interest and approval. But on the other hand, all three were aware that surviving and getting stronger was supposed to be their top priority, one that requires undivided attention for the time being.

Ukyo sighed. "Ah hell, I'll be the first to say it. She's right. Right now there are a thousand enemies out there that could be anything from dragons to ghosts to who-knows-what. And that's not even counting other players trying to get ahead of us. The last thing we need is enemies among ourselves. A truce won't hurt. Besides, how can we get married in a game to begin with?"

Shampoo nodded. "Yes, no rules or laws here but the ones we make. Old rules don't apply here no more, even Amazon laws."

Akane was a bit hesitant but knew she had to say something. "Well this doesn't mean anyone has to just stop _liking_ him. But right now, I don't see how arguing over who's going to be his wife is going to make things better here. Especially if it changes nothing in the real world." A bad thought just came to her. "Wait, you guys don't think our parents are going to try and make a marriage official while we're stuck here do you?"

Nabiki shook her head. "Don't be so paranoid Akane. If they _could_ make you marry Ranma without consent like that, surely even _they'd_ be smart enough to have done it by now."

That was something that all three fiancee candidates for Ranma thought about. If there _was_ a way for them to get married without consent, then it would have happened as soon as Akane was chosen.

"She's right. As far as I know there aren't any known ways to force a marriage, especially on minors. It's only stated that minors must have parental permission for a consensual marriage and they both must be at least sixteen." Kasumi added as they continued on the quest. "So even if our parents try to give permission now, I don't think any government official would recognize a marriage as consentual when both parties are unconscious."

"Yeah, plus Pop's ain't that smart. He wouldn't even know where to start for something like that." Ranma admitted getting some giggles.

* * *

"Thank you for delivering these barrels to us. We were in desperate need of them. Here's a small token of our appreciation." Said the NPC merchant as he signaled the end of the quest. They managed to get just enough Experience to level up at least once more, making them all Level 3 now.

"Ooh, we got some gear." Nabiki said as they looked through the stuff there: an iron mace, some smithing mats, and a smithing hammer. "Someone must want us to become smiths."

"What good would blacksmithing do us?" Akane questioned.

"Smithing skills help repair and improve weapons." Shampoo answered. "It's cheaper than always buying new ones."

"Good point." Akane said looking at her sword at her hip. "How does someone raise their skills?"

"Usually with experience or completing quests. That's how these games work." Nabiki answered. "MMORPGs offer a lot of ways to customize your character. From what I saw, there's no job class, therefore no knights or mages or clerics, that sort of thing, but skills seem to be nearly infinite in variety. We can learn how to do pretty much anything here if we take the time to practice it. Just like in real life."

"So does that mean here Akane can actually learn to cook?" Ranma asked. Akane huffed in response, unsure whether to be mad at the implication or curious about the possibility.

"Assuming she gets a cooking skill and works at raising it, there's no reason why she couldn't." Nabiki explained.

'Then I'm going to maximize that skill while I have the chance to.' Akane vowed.

"We should all work on our non-fighting skills too." Nabiki suggested. "Right now we've all got low skills, so right now even Kasumi's no better a cook than Akane is."

That sure got everyone's eyes to nearly get out of their skulls. Then everyone checked their skill menus and saw they all had low skills in everything. True beginners of a game, a game that didn't care what their talents in real life were. Everyone started as a blank slate in a game and had to work their way up. That was the whole point of RPGs. Granted some gave you a head start in one direction, but Sword Art Online wasn't one of them.

"Fighting skills are a must, but since we might be here for years we should learn to live here too rather than just fight our way out." Nabiki told everyone. "The fact is, fighting can only do some much. I mean, it will get expensive constantly going to restaurants or inns all the time. I can manage our money, that's something I don't need a game skill for. But we need to learn how to cook, how to track, how to make things, all that stuff. Dividing it among ourselves seems like it's only fair."

Everyone nodded. "So what should we do then in that regard?" Ukyo asked.

"We all learn to fight, but I don't think we should all fight the same way. Some variety will do us good." Ranma claimed.

Nabiki nodded. "Yes. And half the people in this group already know how to cook, so for now I think you three should work on getting that skill up."

Kasumi, Shampoo, and Ukyo nodded, but Akane looked mildly crestfallen. "I can too."

"Yes you can sis, but also keep in mind what your natural talents are. Maybe you can earn better skills faster if you stick to what you're best at in life too." Nabiki advised. "Though since we have the stuff for smithing, maybe you can work on that one first. We do need a reliable source of weapon maintenance."

"Umm... I don't know. I mean, I hate to admit it, but I am kinda clumsy." Akane countered.

"Then learn not to be. If your level is high enough the system takes care of the hard part for you. MMORPG's that use leveling systems are like that. A bit unfair if you're low level but that's just incentive to improve."

"Tell you what, I'll work on it with you so you have someone to help you out. Sound good?" Ukyo offered.

"Uh, sure. Thanks."

"Anyway, can we get back before something decides to show up?" The okonomiyaki chef added. "I mean, let's save discussions for Safe Zones."

"Good idea." Ranma said, and everyone headed back, the gear they got currently put in Akane's storage.

* * *

The journey back to their town was simple, interfered by only a couple of wild boars that gave them more Coll and Experience but nothing else. Along the way each of them reflected on their situation.

'Does this mean all my training and strength has disappeared?' Ranma asked himself. 'I'm sure I can still repeat the moves, but does the game force me to be weak? If Kuno finds out he'd stop at nothing to destroy me. And knowing my luck, everyone else who wants to beat me is in this game and determined to level up before me. Well there's no way I'm going to let that happen.'

'This is my chance to become the one Ranma wants to be with.' Akane thought, hopeful. 'I know we're not supposed to compete for him now, but that doesn't mean we can't give him a little motivation in choosing someone on his own. My biggest problem before was everything I could do, everyone here could do better. But being here can fix that, and maybe I can carry over those skills to the real world.'

'Fighting's never been my thing, heck the only reason I came here was because I wanted to see if the hype was worth it.' Nabiki pondered. 'Given the graphics and feel of the game, I would say yes, but being trapped here kind of devalues it. Who am I kidding? _No one_ is going to play this game a second time. Anyway, like I was saying before, I need to learn new skills, since I doubt blackmail does any good against a Boss monster. But what would I be good at?'

'I just wanted to have a little escape from my routine.' Kasumi thought, not sure how to feel. 'A fun little chance to break out of my mold even if only for a bit. I guess I got more of an escape than I bargained for. I'm... I'm scared of dying here, dying when it's just supposed to be a game. What's the point of this?' She closed her eyes for a moment. 'Stop this, questioning the situation won't change it at all. The important thing to do is survive, get strong and make it back home. I have to train too. At least I'm not alone.'

'This game is going to destroy my business if I'm going to be stuck here for years.' Ukyo rued. 'To think I just wanted something to do at home besides cook or watch over Konatsu. Now I can't get ho... wait! People need food here too. Maybe when the time's right I can reopen my shop somewhere here. Give us some stable income without needing fights. And I doubt that programmer bothered to make okonomiyaki a meal option here. I'd make a killing as the only okonomiyaki maker in the world. Well, this world.'

'Great-grandmother must be so worried. And Airen's parents must hate me more than they already do.' Shampoo feared, then steeled herself. 'But now, I must do what I can to get everyone out. I can do this, this game can't beat me. I will survive.'

"Someone's coming." Ranma warned quietly. Everyone tensed and put their hands on their sword handles. "But I don't think it's a monster."

"A player?" Akane asked. "We shouldn't fight a player."

"Not if we don't have to." Nabiki advised, certain that someday fighting a fellow player was going to be inevitable.

The newcomer walked but he looked like he wasn't aware anyone was around. He sort of hobbled forward, like a person in shock, unaware of his surroundings but compelled to keep moving forward. But a cursor was over his head, proving he wasn't an NPC.

"Wait, is that...?" Akane asked when he became more visible. "It is!"

"Doc?" Ranma asked. "He's in the game too?"

For some reason it was Dr. Tofu, a martial arts doctor of sorts. He mastered enough of the martial arts to apply it to natural medicine without the need for most of the stuff hospitals used, but it came at the cost that he was a private run clinic and wouldn't be able to possess life support that the major hospitals had.

"Dr. Tofu!" Akane yelled, getting the older man's attention.

"Akane? Ranma? I had hoped that neither of you were here, and..." He stopped while looking at Kasumi, but he didn't seem to be in his usual state of random statements and clumsiness that usually happened when he was in the same room as Kasumi. "Kasumi? You're here too?"

She nodded. "Yeah, we wanted to give the game a try and got caught up in all this. What about you?"

"Oh, I got roped into it after I moved. A patient was kind enough to offer a NerveGear and a copy of Sword Art Online, and I would have declined, until he suggested that it's just for fun."

"We all were tricked." Shampoo replied.

"I don't know what to do. I mean, I haven't been in a fight in years." Tofu confessed. "I didn't even plan to keep the game, just try it then give it back. But I can't get out of this. None of us can."

Seeing the doctor show feet of clay was about as bad as seeing Kasumi in the same situation earlier.

"Come with us. We at least have a place to sleep tonight. That should do you some good." Akane offered.

"That... that might help."

* * *

Night came and everyone went to sleep after eating dinner. They had no way to cook, but eating something together in a room gave them some semblance of being home.

The shock from earlier was gone so now everyone seemed eager to get to sleep. Everyone seemed to silently agree to give the two beds to Kasumi and Tofu, the two most bothered by being in the game. The older members of the group slept separately while the younger members slept on the floor with spare blankets to keep them warm.

After a while Akane woke up and walked outside, staring up into the sky that wasn't a real sky. The ceiling reflected light in a way that almost resembled stars, and a strange artificial crescent moon was glowing over the village.

'This world... it's incredible. Ignoring the fact that everything's fake except the death, it really is an amazing place. Unlike any I thought I could ever see. Even Ryugenzawa can't compete with this world, and it wasn't any safer.' She thought, pausing for a moment. 'Would I be thinking this if Ranma wasn't here with me to protect me and share this with?'

Akane thought for a few moments more, and it was something that spoke volumes for itself. Akane like the vast majority of people in the world, the real world that is, didn't like admitting her shortcomings. Such as her tendency to act first and think never. It was that tendency that got Ranma and even herself in more trouble then they would have been in had she withheld herself. It was in this thought process that she finally admitted something to herself. 'Ranma's always saving me, and I don't want to lose him. This game isn't going to get rid of him that easily, and even if it could, it'll have to go through me to do it. But me? I'm a different story. If I was on my own I'd probably be dead already, killed by one of those wolves. I have to get stronger, and Ranma can help me if I just let him.'

She mentally sighed and tightened her hands for a moment. 'But first, I've gotta let Ranma know how I feel. I don't want to die without doing that. I thought I had all the time in the world before, but now there's no guarantee of that.'

"Akane?"

The youngest Tendo opened her eyes and slowly turned to her right, seeing the boy in question standing and looking at her with concern. She smiled. "Sorry, did I wake up?"

"A little, but I was having a hard time sleeping anyway."

"That must be a first for you." Akane joked. "I'm okay, I just wanted to think about something."

"Okay." He said, then slowly turned to give her the privacy she had sought.

"Ranma, could you stay a bit? There's something I wanted to tell you." Akane kindly requested.

"Umm... okay?" The pigtailed boy said before sitting next to her, leaving some distance to ensure she couldn't reach over and touch him.

Akane saw that such a placement was intentional and felt a pang in her heart. 'I must have conditioned him to do this.' She then scooted closer until she could place her hand over his and look into his nervous eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you Ranma. I just want to tell you something." Seeing she had his attention, she continued. "Ranma, if what Nabiki said is true, we're going to be in here for quite some time. I don't want to spend that time at each others throats. I think we should just focus on what's really important."

"I was thinking of something similar myself." Ranma commented.

"One thing I most want to do then is clear the air between us." Akane continued. "Ranma, I don't hate you. To be honest, I don't even really think of you as a pervert anymore. Sure you're not the most charming guy I've seen, but you are the one I care most for." Ranma gave her an expected surprised look, and she moved in for the big finish. "I'm not ready to get married yet, but there's no one else I'd rather think about marrying than you."

Ranma had no idea how to react. The girl he was closest to, the one who seemed to resent that role half the time she had it, just confessed that she wanted to be closer to him.

Worst part was this made what he wanted to say to her that much harder.

"Akane, I care about you too. When I think about love, you're the first person who comes to mind for me." He sheepishly admitted, looking at the sky while hearing Akane gasp. "But there's something. A problem I can't really ignore. Especially here."

"What is it? We can work things out." Akane said, hoping he wasn't going to let her down. 'Please, it can't be too late to fix things between us. It just can't be.'

"Akane, I care about you, and part of really does want to love you." Ranma started, this not being any easier to say. "But the thing is... I don't really _know_ you. We've been around each other for over a year and I still feel like I don't know anything about you. How can I love you if you're such a mystery to me?"

"Ranma, you do know me." Akane told him.

"Akane, I know about you, but I don't know you. I don't know what your favorite color or food is, what you think or believe, what you like or dislike, things like that. I know a couple of your habits and preferences, but beyond that, nothing. You haven't really let me get to know you."

The short-haired tomboy was silent, taking this in. "Ranma, you don't mean that do you?"

"I can prove it. How well do you know me? What's my favorite food?" He asked.

Akane opened her mouth but no words came out. 'Ramen? Okonomiyaki? Anything I don't make?'

"If you asked me the same question, I wouldn't be able to answer it either." Ranma told her. "I don't know you as well as I should, and I think you don't know me as well as you should either."

Akane slowly nodded, her eyes starting to tear up. "You're right. All this time fighting the engagement, we've never tried learning about each other. I know how you make me feel, but I don't really know you."

"But being here actually can fix that." Ranma told her, making her tears stop. "We have no one here trying to make us marry the second we show fondness for each other. I think I'd like to use this time in the game to get to know you better, so maybe someday we actually can have a relationship that we enjoy."

Akane's eyes released more tears now, but this time she was smiling. "Ranma, thank you. That means a lot to me. And I think that's a good idea too."

"Before you say that Akane, I got to tell you there's more to this than just that." Ranma warned. "It's not just you I don't know, it's Shampoo and Ucchan too. They want relationships too, and I don't know them and they don't know me."

"Why think about them? You just said you want to get to know me." Akane asked.

"Because not thinking about them would be unfair." Ranma stated.

Akane frowned. "More unfair than telling me you want to be with me while expecting me to be okay with them wanting relationships with you too?"

"I know how it sounds Akane, but think about it before you accuse me of something." Ranma kindly requested.

Akane huffed, not sure what to do. 'Part of me wants to tell him no, that he needs to prioritize me and only me or not at all. What right do those floozies have to him after everything he and I have been through? And how can he even consider sparing their feelings? He should just tell them both to suck it up and leave us...' She paused her train of thought and lost a lot of her frustration. 'What am I thinking? Tell them to leave us alone? Where would they go here? Who else can they turn to? Shampoo and Ukyo are trapped here too, and telling them to get lost is no different than abandoning them to die.'

"Ranma, I think I see what you mean. In the real world it would have been different. But here, we have no home to go to if our heart gets broken."

Ranma nodded. "Exactly Akane. And since they can't leave, imagine how they'd feel spending all their time in our group watching us be a couple. How would you feel it I was giving them that treatment instead and ignoring you?"

Akane sighed sadly. "I'd feel unwelcome, and eventually I'd leave even if I had nowhere to go, just to get away. I'd feel like I couldn't rely on you anymore because their safety would always come before my own."

Ranma nodded. "And you want them to feel that way?"

"No, but I don't want to feel that way either. Ranma, even if you don't want anyone to get hurt by choosing just one of us, sooner or later you're going to have to. You can't keep waiting for two out of three to just drop interest."

"Maybe, but I don't think choosing while we're here is going to do us any good. Especially since I don't know who I'd want to choose." Ranma told her. "So I'm not going to make any choice until much later on in the future, and I'd like to use this time to get to know all three of you. It wouldn't be fair to give only you special treatment when we're all in this together. Shampoo and Ucchan have just as much right too to get to know me and let me know them."

Akane looked away, not trusting herself to react kindly at the moment. "You really think that's the best idea?"

"Maybe not, but it's the fairest one." Ranma told her. "I know you don't like the idea-"

"Damn right I don't." She interjected. "But... you're right. We all have nowhere to go and no one else to rely on. The last thing we need is for our group to have friction within itself. That's why we agreed to not press the fiancee issue anymore. But if one of us got to do something that's for all intents and purposes dating you... friction's the only thing that can be created within the group."

"Right. So the only options are I do nothing or I give all three of you an equal chance. And that means I can't promise you Akane what the outcome will be. How is that fair?"

Akane turned to the boy she admired, her expression somber but not hurt. "I understand Ranma. I don't like it though and I don't think I'm ever going to like it, but I understand why you think this. Here we need to stick together, and if the only way I can be with you is to not keep you to myself... I'll take that over the alternative."

Ranma put his arm around her to comfort her. She moved in and leaned against him, using him as a pillar of strength, silently crying mostly because it felt good to cry right then. "I'm sorry." He said, mostly because it felt appropriate.

"Me too." Akane told him. "I'm sorry for my attitude yesterday. I know this isn't Shampoo's fault."

"Then why did you blame her?"

Akane sighed and pulled away just enough to look at the pigtailed boy. "Ranma, I've kind of got an old habit. You see, my mom didn't die naturally, she was killed."

Ranma was surprised, no one ever actually told him how Mrs. Tendo passed away. He had assumed it was some illness or accident, not something like murder.

"We were at a train station, going to go somewhere. I don't remember where or why anymore. But as the train was pulling in, someone in the crowd bumped into her hard and knocked her onto the tracks." Akane continued.

Ranma gasped. "What?"

Akane nodded, tearing up again. "Yes, she was killed all because someone wanted to get into a train a few minutes sooner. Worst part is the man was never arrested for causing her death. The courts ruled it as an accident and he had to pay us a fine, but to me it wasn't enough. My mom died because of him, he deserved so much worse than that. To be honest a good part of why I became a martial artist was so when I got older I could find him and beat the crap out of that man."

"Akane, you became a martial artist just so you can hurt someone with it?" Ranma asked.

"I was a kid at the time Ranma. A kid who just lost her mother to someone who got away with it. Can you blame me for thinking like that?" Akane asked. "I was just so mad that he got away with killing her I wanted him to suffer. And when I saw other people get away with their crimes, I thought they needed to suffer too."

"Well that I can understand Akane, but martial arts isn't supposed to be learned just so you can hurt people with it. The art is about more than strength, it's about being able to control it. You have more than enough strength to be one, but hearing this, makes me think you don't have the control to be one."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Akane, I can help you become the martial artist you want to be. I want to help you become that. But for me to do that, you need to admit you need my help. Can you do that?" Ranma asked her.

Akane nodded. "Yes, I admit it, I need your help. I want your help. What do I need to do?"

"First, you need a new motive. Use your skills to defend all of us, to ensure none of us get killed here. So you don't have to see another loved one die. If you use martial arts just to punish others, you're going to have a repeat of the fight with Nabiki."

"I don't want that. Never again. If it ever looks like I'm going to hit someone, even you, please stop me." Akane pleaded.

Ranma withheld a laugh. "You make it sound like stopping you is easy for me to do."

"Please Ranma, if you care about me, stop me from hitting you or anyone else. I don't want anyone to die because my temper got the better of me." Akane insisted.

"Alright, though you'll need to work on that too for it to work. But regarding your martial arts I can teach you some forms you can use to work with your strength for a good cause. You'll be using your strength the way it was intended to be used. And while there will be times you'll want to hurt others, you should save it for official challenges rather than just attacking them right away."

Akane nodded. "I'll do anything to be someone who doesn't disappoint you anymore Ranma."

Ranma arched an eyebrow. "You think you disappoint me?"

"Kind of."

He tightened his hold on her. "I'm not disappointed in you Akane. I just think you can hurt someone if you're not careful. Why did you hit Nabiki anyway?"

"I'm not really sure, it happened so fast. I was just upset that everyone was telling me I was wrong, and to me it felt like you all were picking on me. When she slapped me, it was like she was saying she trusted Shampoo more than me." She wiped her eyes. "But you guys were right, and I was being irrational. I was afraid, afraid of being in this game, and I just wanted someone to take it out on."

"Save that attitude for the monsters Akane." He suggested, and she nodded. "I won't let you die here. You're going to get back home someday. I swear it. Even if it means I have to die here."

"Don't say that." Akane reprimanded. "Don't ever say that Ranma. Getting back home without you isn't an option as far as I'm concerned. If you ever think it's okay for you to die here, I _will_ hit you if only to remind you that I need you here."

"I didn't say I wanted to die Akane. I think the seppuku pledge should have proved that." Ranma told her.

"Good, I intend on you wanting to stay alive." Akane said while hugging him.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

Akane nodded, a small smile on her cute face. "I am. I think I can go to sleep now. Thank you Ranma. And I'll tell the others what you told me."

"You think they'll listen to you?" Ranma asked.

"I think I can say it in a way that will make sense to them. You'll probably still have to tell them yourself, but at least this way I can show them I'm making amends."

"Okay, if you want to."

Akane smiled. "Thanks." She then suppressed a yawn. "I think I'm finally getting tired. Let's go get some sleep."

"Sounds good. And please, no bucket of water in the morning." Ranma asked.

Akane laughed. "There's no school for us tomorrow. I think we could all use a chance to sleep in anyway."

The two teens went back inside, unsure what the future would bring but confident they would stand together while facing it.


	3. IRL

CHAPTER 2.5 IRL

"Dammit boy why didn't you listen to me? I told you that you had no business playing games or associating with that gaijin!"

"Genma calm down. It's not like Ranma can hear you."

"The hell he can't. Get that thing off him and wake his sorry ass up."

In a room in a large hospital there were five people lying unconscious on beds, more than the recommended capacity of the room but all five of them were hooked up to the same basic system, thus keeping them together was viewed as a priority. There were four people in the room that were conscious, and they were the guardians of the unconscious five.

And one of those guardians was just about kill one of the five.

"Genma no!" All three of the other adults shouted, forcing the oldest one to attack him and immobilize him.

"Genma Saotome, I've always known you to be a fool, but_ this_... this is low." Cologne scolded. "Have you already forgotten the warning we were given?"

"_You_ were given that, not us." Genma corrected.

Cologne narrowed her eyes. "Are you suggesting that I altered the warning or am somehow responsible for this terrible situation?"

"Damn right I am." Genma proclaimed.

"You son of a bitch."

"Elder please, it's nothing personal." Nodoka insisted. "We're just upset. Our child is in danger."

"So is MY child!" Cologne reminded the Japanese woman, stunning her.

Soun meanwhile was looking at his three daughters, crying to the point of near dehydration at seeing them hooked up to machines to still be alive. "My baby girls... what kind of monster would do such a thing to them?"

"We went over this already Tendo. A man named Kayaba explained the entire story on tv and sent notices to every house where someone who purchased a copy of the game resided." Cologne reminded him. "For a cyber-terrorist he was remarkably polite. And very insistent that removing the helmets would kill them."

"That's got to be a load of crap." Genma declared.

"Genma, are you willing to take that chance on our son's life?" Nodoka asked.

"I've risked Ranma's life thousands of times. Why should this be any different?"

"Because 200 people have already been killed by having the helmets removed. You want your son to be one of them?" Cologne told him. "Or do you not care if he lives or dies?"

Genma glared at the old woman. "You accuse me of not caring?"

"We told you that removing the helmet will kill him and yet you seem to have no interest in withholding yourself. Does that sound like caring to you?"

"How do we know that thing about removing the helmet is even true?" Genma asked.

"200 people died! If that's not enough to convince you what is? 300? 400?" Cologne asked.

"Maybe we can remove the helmet from your little tramp and see for ourselves just how deadly this is." Genma suggested, making his wife gasp and Cologne glow with a ki aura.

The attack she dealt him came so swiftly no one knew how exactly she did it, but the end result was Genma twisted in a human pretzel. Cologne looked at Genma like he would have been better off if Nodoka wanted the seppuku pledge fulfilled. "Tell me fat man, what is your reason for making my great-granddaughter be the guinea pig for your need to revive your son? And please, if you know what's good for you, you _won't_ say that it's because my Shampoo's life has no value to you."

"Her life _has_ no value to me. I'm not about to risk one of the other girls to test this out." Genma boldly declared. Nodoka gasped again and Soun was simply stunned.

"So you'll gladly kill my great-granddaughter just to confirm what you've been told?" Cologne asked, her voice so laced with venom you could almost swear she had fangs at that moment.

"She caused all this. She deserves to suffer." Genma announced, attempting to point at Shampoo but unable to get his hand or arm to work properly.

Nodoka faced him. "Husband, do my ears deceive me? Because it sounds like not only do you believe this girl _can_ die if you tamper with her equipment, but rather you are _counting_ on it to happen."

"It's more I won't be upset if she _does_ die." He corrected. "We have to test this out somehow, and the way I see it, she's the only expendable option."

Cologne was so pissed at this declaration that one could swear she was about to combust. Before anyone could do anything about it, she assaulted the panda man like she was trying to murder him. Which is quite possibly what she was trying to do.

"Please Elder stop." Soun pleaded on behalf of his friend.

Cologne gave the mustachioed man the evil eye, making him sweat nervously. "Tendo, if this man here said that either Kasumi or Nabiki were expendable, would you react any differently?"

"He wouldn't." Soun stated.

"Why not? Ranma only needs to marry _one_ of your daughters." The older woman reminded him, making him jolt a bit.

"Elder, while I'm sure that my husband wouldn't do that, I can understand the intent behind your own reaction completely. Even if I believe you went too far in enacting it." Nodoka told Cologne, trying to defuse the situation.

"I went too far? Need I remind you that before I stood up to him he was willing to take the helmet off your own son? If he had tried would you have reacted with kindness or brute force?"

"My son dying is a different matter entirely." Nodoka answered.

"And my great-granddaughter isn't to me?" Cologne replied. "Am I supposed to consider my Shampoo to be expendable as well? Am I?!"

Nodoka was stunned speechless for a bit. It was true that it was a difficult thing to suggest, but when Nodoka did speak, it might not have been the right thing to say. "Well, I don't mean to be rude, but Ranma does have a bit more importance to me as my heir and the one to carry on the Saotome line. He is also to carry on the 'Anything Goes' martial art school with his marriage to Akane. If I had to choose between him and your granddaughter I wouldn't think twice about it."

Cologne whacked Nodoka on the head when she finished.

"You were still quite rude, and even though as a mother you have that right to think this way regarding your child, you both seem to be overlooking the fact that this is not just your decision to make. Neither one of these children should have to die now just to satisfy some whim of yours. And even if the case was otherwise, your son's life is equal to my great-granddaughter."

"You'll pardon me if I disagree." Nodoka said, rubbing her head.

"No, I will not." Cologne replied. "Two hundred people have already died because of this game, and the fact that you're willing to even consider taking off the hardware keeping them alive is nonsense to say the least. What do you need to convince you that your son and these girls are trapped in a coma?"

"I don't want anyone to die here, but you must admit it's hard looking at them like this and not being able to do _something_." Nodoka mentioned.

"It is hard, that I will not contest, but the sad truth is there is nothing we can do to better their situation. For better or worse, they are trapped and only they can get themselves out. Any attempts on our end can only result in death. I for one believe that staying my hand and letting them live is better than acting on desperation and risking their deaths. Do any of you feel differently?"

Soun had no disagreements on this. He had to hope that his daughters would be able to stay alive until the game was finished or that the hardware was able to be safely removed, mystically or otherwise. Genma, on the other hand, would have contested and even started to open his mouth.

"To sacrifice anymore people then necessary is quite unmanly, and if Ranma should be forced to die, then my husband would be forced to commit seppuku. I, as promised, would act as second and follow them to the grave in exchange for not being a true woman among women." That statement from Nodoka certainly kept Genma's mouth shout, especially since he didn't want to die, and the fact that Nodoka stated that she would follow them implied that she would torture them in death.

"I believe that you may need to research the modern age, as it's not the feudal era." Cologne said with an odd look at Nodoka. The Amazon matriarch may have been one for tradition, but even she recognized the need to know that the world changes, as well as the need for the youth to adapt for tomorrow.

"That it may be, but surely you know there's nothing wrong with keeping some traditions of the past around and strong." Nodoka claimed.

"But we can agree that here tradition cannot and should not be applied. The important matter here is the lives and well-being of these children." Cologne insisted.

Nodoka nodded. "I agree. Are you positive there is nothing we can do to help them?"

Genma chose then to interject. "If we can't take these helmets off, we should find the man who made them and make him take them off."

Soun nodded. "Excellent idea Saotome. Let's go do that."

Before the women could stop them, Soun grabbed his old friend, who was still in a lot of pain thanks to Cologne, and dragged him out of the room. Though judging by their expressions, one could say that rather than be unable to stop them, the women simply chose not to.

"There, now that Tweedledee and Tweedledum are gone, we can have a real discussion." Cologne said. Nodoka just nodded, not getting the Western reference. "I doubt very much so that those two can accomplish anything. After all, this game and hardware took years to develop. If the inventor desired this result, it's unlikely that he would make undoing it easy."

"Sadly I must agree. But the idea that we can accomplish nothing-"

"-While unfavorable, appears to be our one and only option." The Amazon elder interrupted. "While I'm quite familiar with the Saotome mentality of pushing hard enough until you get results, I believe this is instead a time for a tactical retreat. Rather than do anything ourselves, we should trust the children to be able to get themselves out of this situation."

"Do you really think that warning you received was the truth? That if they manage to beat the game they all will be released?" Nodoka asked, fearful of the alternative.

"For the time being we have no reason to believe anything else. Like I pointed out, 213 deaths have been attributed to this game, and I highly doubt that someone would stage that just to make this threat look convincing."

Nodoka nodded. "Yes, you've got a point."

"Saotome-san, while I have no intention of forbidding you or your husband from visiting your son while he's here, I must insist that your husband never ever comes here alone." Cologne added.

Nodoka looked curious. "And why exactly is that?"

"If it must be explained, the fact is that while you may trust that man, I do not. I do not trust him to not repeat what he did here when someone isn't around to stop him."

"You believe my husband would try to to kill your granddaughter again later?"

"Can you look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't?"

"My husband is an honorable man."

The temptation to laugh almost overwhelmed Cologne, so she had to settle for a logical response to get Nodoka to come around to her terms. "If an honorable man as you claim him to be can attempt murder in front of an audience, why would he refrain himself when he has privacy?"

"Murder?" Nodoka repeated.

Cologne nodded. "If taking the helmet off one of these kids kills them, isn't that in legal terms murder? I doubt you can call it an accident."

In truth, Nodoka had no thoughts about it. She still saw the best in Genma, even at his worst, but she couldn't truly answer that question without giving a full agreement. After all, Genma himself had all but admitted that he wanted Shampoo to die.

"I thought so much as well." Cologne said as she took a seat near her great-granddaughter. "Genma is easy enough to handle as long as there is something else to preoccupy himself, but it's Son-in-law's and Akane's less reputable rivals that I would show more concern about."

"What do you mean? Why would my son's sparring partners be a threat?" Nodoka asked.

Cologne gave a weary sigh. "Saotome-san, I know you spent the better part of the past decade expecting some sort of fantasy version of your son to come home to you, but you must see the truth of the situation rather than the expectation. There are people that see Son-in-law as the 'source' of their troubles, and they believe that defeating him would solve their troubles so they go about trying to make Son-in-law miserable, by any means necessary. These 'sparring partners' as you call them are not friends, they are honestly and truly trying to remove your son from the picture."

Nodoka gasped. "That can't be."

"Did you honestly believe that a 'man among men' would never acquire a genuine enemy or two?" Cologne asked. "They are not trying to help Ranma get stronger, they want him eliminated. One of my employees Mousse is such a person, but fortunately I keep Mousse busy so he wouldn't have as much time to plot against, or in this case, take advantage of Son-in-law in a powerless state to claim Shampoo, but that is only one example."

"If you believe he's dangerous why keep him employed?" Nodoka challenged.

Cologne snickered. "I said he wanted Son-in-law gone, I never said he was dangerous. Mousse's attempts are more comical than threatening, and while he has gotten close, Son-in-law was never in any real danger. I keep Mousse around primarily because he at least keeps Son-in-law on his toes and help him get stronger indirectly. But should the day come when Mousse actually does become a threat, I'll send him back to China so fast he'll molt."

"But surely my son has at least a few real friends." Nodoka hoped.

Cologne suppressed a sigh. While Nodoka was not by her nature an unreasonable woman, she seemed to listen through a filter. Cologne suspected that because she had spent so much time dreaming about how Ranma would grow up to be, now that she was back in his life her only concern so far was to ensure her expectations had been met. In summary, she had no interest in the real Ranma, only interest in confirming how much like her dream version of him he was.

"That depends on how you define friends." Cologne told her. "If you mean people who fight with Son-in-law for fun rather than self-interest, then no he has none. Those that fight him have many things in mind, but sport has not been one of them in my experience."

"But surely he must have at least one friend that benefits him. What about Hibiki-san? He's aided Ranma before." Nodoka had provided at least a reason, but Cologne had already seen that name coming.

"As I said, he has no friends that are as interested in the Art as he is, and Ryoga helping Son-in-law has only occurred when there may be something in it for himself. Ryoga Hibiki is a self-interested person who only uses the Art as a means to establish some type of superiority over your son. While the two may be capable of some form of cooperation, I've little doubt he would abandon Son-in-law as soon as the common goal was within his grasp. Or if he felt that he could acquire his goal while hindering your son from his own."

"He can't be all bad." Nodoka defended.

"With all due respect Saotome-san I've had more interaction with the boy than you have. You may have birthed him but you don't _know_ him. I myself have even trained Ryoga, and I know for a fact that if he thinks he can destroy or even kill with what he's learning then he would accept the training. This boy is no real friend of your son, he wallows in his own depression while considering Son-in-law the reason for all of it, convinced that removing him will make all his misery go away. Which realistically is impossible."

That bit of information, while frightening, gave Nodoka not a sense of realization but a chance to defend her fantasy. "Then if he was going to try to kill Ranma, then why did you train him? Aren't you the same then?"

Cologne narrowed her eyes. "If you're implying that I'm a hypocrite, then you yourself are one as well. I never claimed to love him then threaten his life for reasons he doesn't understand. Instead I've taught him secret techniques of my tribe. Techniques that are not supposed to be given to an outsider mind you. What have you ever taught your child?"

Nodoka froze, unable to answer that, allowing Cologne to continue.

"I may have instructed Ryoga a bit but I never taught him a technique that can be used for killing! I merely gave him the impression it could kill to test his morality. And he showed how much of a friend he is to Son-in-law by having no qualms with trying to kill him."

"I have a hard time believing you did this just to test some boy's moral fiber. What was your real intent?" Nodoka asked.

"I consider myself a teacher to your son. Wouldn't a true teacher of the Art ensure that her student has challenges to overcome? I was giving Son-in-law someone who could stand up to him on more equal ground than others could, so he can improve on his own end. Without a worthy foe, Son-in-law's own strength would begin to stagnate."

"While that I can understand, you've shown me that you are not more trustworthy to me than my husband is to you." Nodoka claimed.

Cologne shrugged. "But I have no reason to remove a helmet, do I?"

"You might on my son's one true fiancee." Nodoka claimed.

"Rather than argue about who that is, why would I do that? If Akane were to die from such an obvious manner, I'd be the first suspect. Why would I put such a target on my back?"

"I suppose you have a point. Much like how if your granddaughter were killed my husband would be the first suspect." Nodoka agreed.

"But several people might try and kill Son-in-law, that's something you must be aware of." Cologne warned. "I worry that even something like triggering the curse might confuse the hardware and kill him or Shampoo. So I've already arranged it so that the staff here will always be able to use water-proof soap on the two of them when they wash them."

"That is a wise precaution. but are you certain that someone will try and harm my son while he is defenseless?"

"Saotome-san, allow me to tell you a few things I've learned while watching your son. For this to work, you need to really listen, not simply look for what you want to find. I'll start with a time when he was rendered without strength and many found out."

* * *

In another room in the same hospital there laid Ukyo, hooked up to her own life support systems and game system. The hospital believed that keeping the NerveGear powered up wasn't enough, they needed to be linked to the game software itself for full measure. since she wasn't part of the same group that had been at the Nekohanten she was given a different room than the others to reduce the space machines would take up.

She had one visitor at the moment, her employee Konatsu, a gender-confused boy who thought of himself more as a girl thanks to some really messed up childhood upbringing at the hands of some criminally ugly kunoichi.

"Could I have done something to prevent this?" He kept asking himself, certain that he could have done something, even if he had no idea what if anything he could have done.

"Who are you?" Someone asked, catching Konatsu off guard and triggering his ninja reflex to get on the defensive, which he did by jumping from his chair and taking on a defensive stance. He saw a bearded man old enough to be his father dressed in blue and white by the door. The look and feel to this man was not hostile, meaning he wasn't here to do Ukyo any harm, but nor was he a doctor here to check up on her so Konatsu was conflicted.

"I'm Ukyo-sama's faithful retainer. Who are you?"

The man raised an eyebrow at this response. "I'm her father. I got word of her being stuck in a coma and came here as quickly as possible. Why does she have that contraption on her head?"

Konatsu relaxed and sat down. "Kuonji-sama, what all have you heard so far? I'll be happy to fill in the gaps to the best of my ability."

* * *

Ryoga was sitting outside looking at the stars. For once he wasn't out in the wilderness but right outside a house. Not his house, no he was at the home of his for-lack-of-a-more-concrete-term girlfriend Akari. He did like the girl and she returned the affection, but because of his shyness Ryoga was not confident in how exactly to define what their relationship was.

Ryoga was a boy the same age as Ranma and the two went back a ways. They first met in middle school and things got competitive between them, mostly when it came to lunch. Ranma would always beat Ryoga to the food he wanted, and after a while he lost all patience over it. He challenged him to a fight but it never happened thanks to Genma intervening and his own inability to get anywhere on time or by design, and rather than accept the circumstances Ryoga followed the two Saotomes to China and inadvertently shared their fate in getting cursed. Of all the people he knew who had curses, he had quite possibly the most defenseless one, another thing that bothered him.

As Cologne had mentioned, Ryoga was determined to defeat Ranma in an attempt to improve his own life, even if it meant killing the pigtailed boy. Or at least he had thought that once before. Ryoga had learned from his mistakes that Ranma was too tough to take down directly, so he either had to strike Ranma when he was vulnerable or learn to live with it. And when Ranma _was_ vulnerable, Ryoga found that he had more fun in the pursuit than in the goal. In a way, he was lost without Ranma, in more than just the literal sense.

Ranma gave him purpose and Akari helped give him clarity and even joy. Thanks to spending time with her, even if just through letters, he was able to do one of the few things most of Ranma's enemies had never bothered to do: consider how exactly beating Ranma would change anything.

Akari had helped him reach a few conclusions he otherwise never would have. Starting from the beginning, the whole bread feud thing. Looking back it _was_ first come first served and Ranma was simply faster. Sure he was competitive but Ryoga couldn't say he wasn't the same, since _he_ was the one who issued the duel. If he wasn't competitive he'd have no desire to fight Ranma on more equal terms. As for being mad that Ranma wasn't there for the duel, Akari pointed out that if Ryoga had simply asked Ranma would have met him at his house and led him to the lot. Being late is one thing Ryoga can never blame on someone other than himself.

In regards to the curse, Ryoga made the choice on his own to follow Ranma all the way to China. He could have just dropped the matter and continued on with his life. He chose to go to China, and while Ranma did knock him into the spring, further reflection on the incident convinced him it was an accident and Ranma clearly took no pleasure in it having happened. Sure he tormented the lost boy with it, but obviously Ranma felt some degree of guilt and responsibility given how he had never downright revealed the curse. Except in one case, where he was showing it to Akari but that was for Ryoga's own good. And looking back, Ryoga had to admit that was a good call.

So now Ryoga had at least come to admit that Ranma wasn't to blame for everything. But that didn't necessarily mean he liked the guy. Ranma was still annoying as hell to him and an unnecessary show-off, but not a true terrible person. So Ryoga no longer craved Ranma's demise or total humiliation, he did enjoy the idea of being able to beat him at least once to make all the years he spent traveling worth it.

Akari came out and sat down beside him, grateful he hadn't stepped off the porch. Who knows where he'd be now if he had? "I tried calling their home, but no one's answering. I'll try again tomorrow, but so far it looks like the website is accurate."

Ryoga had grown worried for his first love Akane. During his time here at Akari's Sumo Pig Ranch the news had an emergency broadcast telling the country about the two hundred players of SAO who had died from removing the NerveGear and so far all remaining players had yet to log off of the system. Kayaba had given the media a warning similar to the ones he had given the players and they had ensured everyone had heard it just before the surviving players were immediately rounded up and taken to hospitals.

One good thing Kayaba had done was provide a list of every person who had logged into the game in case of the players that lived alone, so no player was left behind. The news had shown footage of players being taken away and interviews of the families of such players, and in the footage Ryoga could have sworn he saw Akane included with the players. A website link was provided so people could check online for a list of still-living players, and to his and Akari's horror Akane, Ranma, and a few other names they knew were on that list. Akari had tried calling the house for confirmation, and the lack of anyone answering seemed to be confirmation enough.

After more than twenty-four hours everyone's fears seemed confirmed. Kayaba's warning was genuine, the players were trapped in his game, unable to log out. Ryoga was angry to think that Akane was one of his many victims. He got up and started walking, but Akari stopped him mid-step.

"And where do you think you're going?" She asked, having learned enough about Ryoga to know that an angry Ryoga is one that doesn't think.

"I'm going to find Akane, and make Ranma pay for getting her involved in this."

She actually slapped him on the head before doing anything else. "Ryoga, everyone knows that Kayaba's behind the attack, so how can this be Ranma's fault? I thought you were past this need to blame him."

"This isn't about that. Think about it Akari, why else would Akane be involved in this game? My gut is telling me that Ranma got her involved."

"Even if that's true, what can you do? The site said Ranma's in the game too, so you can't do anything to him here without killing him. You want to tell Akane when she wakes up that you killed him?"

That made Ryoga hesitate. The fact was as much as Akane antagonized Ranma when she was in a bad mood, she got _very_ defensive when it was someone else doing that to him. Sure she granted Ryoga some leeway in the past, but Ranma dying was surely something Akane would never forgive. Ever.

"Look Ryoga, just be patient. Someone is bound to answer the phone sooner or later. You typed in the names in the search engine and saw that their parents aren't part of the trapped group right?" Akari asked, and Ryoga nodded. "If you just wait we can find out exactly what happened. Rushing in isn't going to accomplish anything here."

That deflated Ryoga's anger. "Sorry, I think that was a force of habit."

Akari nodded in understanding before hugging him to calm him down. "It must be tough, knowing your friends are in this sort of situation and you can't do anything about it. The desire to do something must be so strong you can come to any conclusion."

'That's actually a pretty good way to describe what I feel now. How can she understand me better than I understand myself?' He asked, awed not for the first time at how Akari seemed to get inside his head and clear out the clutter.

"And as selfish as this may sound, I'm really glad you're not stuck in the game as well." The pig enthusiast added.

"I can say the same to you." He told her, making her smile. "Akari, what would you do if I was stuck in the same situation as them?"

"I don't want to think about that Ryoga. I lose enough sleep worrying about what you're facing out there on your own, I can't imagine what I'd do if you were in a coma. I'd visit you every day in the hospital, waiting for you to wake up, with a broken heart each day you didn't."

Ryoga was quite touched. He had once wished that Akane would show him that level of affection, but he had always known the only one she's truly be heartbroken for would be Ranma, as much as she'd deny it. She'd be saddened for Ryoga, but it would be Ranma she'd keep going back to if they were stuck in the game without her.

Ryoga hugged the girl back, grateful for the physical contact he didn't have to be a piglet to get. "Thanks Akari. That means a lot to me."

"Would you mind staying here tonight Ryoga? It'll make me feel better." Akari pleaded.

"Sure, I've got nowhere to go."

* * *

"Please pick up, this is important." Sasuke Sarugakure, the short and easily overlooked ninja subordinate to the Kuno family said while he was on the phone, trying to connect with someone he really didn't want to interact with unless completely necessary. As bad as people considered Tatewaki and Kodachi to be, the person he was trying to call was much worse in his opinion.

The person in mind however paid no mind to the phone, not this time or any of the other times it had rung. For he was far too busy relaxing in his hammock playing the ukulele, completely uninterested in answering the phone. Even if it was news pertaining to the well-being of his children.


	4. Beaters

CHAPTER 3 BEATERS

A large bear was roaring on its hind legs, swatting at a person who threw some throwing knives at it.

"Yeah come and get me you big rug! What are you waiting for? Some honey to go with me?" A girl brandishing a battle ax taunted. The bear got on all fours and charged at her, and she smirked instead of panicked. "Now!"

From behind the bear a humming sound was heard and another girl rushed at the large animal from its blind spot. She hit it with a curved sword and jumped away once the maneuver ended. 'C'mon, let that be enough.'

The meter around the bear had been red before she hit it, and after contact it drained to empty, causing the bear to freeze up and vaporize into shining fragments.

"Yeah! Take that!" Akane cheered. A screen appeared before her telling her she just increased a level.

"Nice job Akane." Ranma praised.

"That was a heck of a haul. We should be able to afford an inn room for three nights easily. But for now let's take a break." Nabiki suggested, going over the rewards this fight had earned her and the group treasury she managed. She was still wearing her wolf pelt, having grown very fond of it. Everyone else was wearing the same clothes they had since they got in the game, not wanting to waste money on fashion, especially since clothes didn't get dirty or smelly in this game if worn for too long.

Living in the game had taken some getting used to, a process that most people if not all felt was currently incomplete. The basic necessities were provided for them assuming they could afford them, and some aspects of real life were removed from the game entirely, such as toilets and what people did with them. Basic day-to-day activities now consisted of acquiring food or a place to sleep while finding a way to increase one's levels without dying. Activities such as laundry, housekeeping, school, and jobs were practically nonexistent for the time being, giving everyone a lot of free time to do what the game really wanted them to do.

"No we should head back. Remember there's that meeting scheduled at noon." Kasumi reminded everyone.

"Oh right, and it's almost 11. We should get going." Shampoo added.

Everyone packed up their stuff and headed back to town.

"How long have we been here in this game again?" Akane wondered to prevent an uncomfortable silence. "I lost track a long time ago."

"According to my calendar... 27 days. Almost an entire month." Kasumi answered, having been the first to pull up a date and time feature from her menu.

"A month, we've been stuck in here for a month." Tofu said somberly, almost mournful.

It had been one month since this death game had begun, and during that time roughly 2,000 people had already met their end, the exact number unclear. Some died in battle against monsters, others were killed by other players who saw them as threats to their own survival and didn't care about the moral conundrum they might face, and then there were those who basically committed suicide, some because they couldn't handle the stress and others because they didn't quite believe Kayaba when he said that death was real for them. The names of everyone who had died could be found on a memorial stone located in the Town of Beginnings, stored in the room that would have been the resurrection chamber if dying was safe, and there were too many names to count without losing track.

Oddly enough, dying because of something happening in the real world seemed to be the least likely cause. Though from where they were, such a cause of death was impossible to determine. They had no access to the real world at all, not even in the form of messages sent to them from the outside server. And given how the NerveGear was connected to their brains, a lack of such outside interference was clearly for the best.

"A lot of people have died in so short a time." Kasumi added with a sad expression. "Imagine how their families must feel."

"I still wonder how ours all feel." Akane added.

"At least yours are around. Mine's on the other side of Japan." Ukyo complained.

"Except for my great-grandmother mine's not even _in_ Japan." Shampoo added.

"Let's just be glad we're still alive. And we've managed to grow strong enough from battles and quests to each reach Level 9." Ranma pointed out, hoping to prevent the mood from getting worse than it already was.

Shampoo nodded. "Yes. Our skills are also considerably better then average compared to most of the active players. So this hasn't been a wasted month. I kind of wonder what the meeting's about. Something about trying to find the boss room, but that seems rather pointless for a meeting if you ask me."

"Hopefully they've already found the boss room and are just letting us know." Nabiki suggested.

"That would be good." Shampoo nodded.

Despite the number of beta testers in the game not a single player had yet to find the boss room for the entire floor. The dungeon itself was found, but the room had been elusive. The group hadn't yet looked for it, prioritizing getting used to fighting in the game. But they had heard that so far it had yet to be found, which everyone knew was pretty suspicious given there were a thousand beta testers, maybe less depending on who had survived, who should have already known.

"Let's go find out." Akane offered, and everyone agreed.

* * *

They made it into town, one called Tolbana, and were thankful that they had managed to score some better gear from their quests. Ranma and Kasumi had both gotten better swords with higher durability, with the difference being Kasumi's sword was a bright crimson and Ranma's sword a stunning blue. Akane, Nabiki, Ukyo, and Shampoo had managed to upgrade their weapons and armor as well as they made their way to the meeting place, a large amphitheater-like structure with a number of players already there. Tofu left to go get them some lunch while they heard the big news.

'There aren't a lot of girls here.' Akane noted, seeing nothing but guys. There was one person off to the side dressed in a red cloak, making identifying them difficult, so Akane wasn't sure what their gender was.

In the center stage of the amphitheater emerged a young man, close to Kasumi's age give or take. He had locks of blue hair, a lighter blue than Akane's blue-tinted black, and dressed in something akin to knight armor over a blue tunic. He clapped twice to get everyone's attention.

"Okay people, now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started. So anyway, I wanna thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diabel, and in this game," He thumped his chest for emphasis. "The job I rolled is knight."

Several men in the audience had a good laugh. "Dude there's no job system in this game." One of them pointed out.

'Diabel... that name is familiar for some reason.' Shampoo thought, wondering where she had heard it before.

"You guys wanna hear this or not?" Diabel asked, getting the murmurs to die down once again. "Right, anyway here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today."

That certainly got everyone's attention. By the tower he meant the large pillar that connected Floor One to Floor Two, where the boss was supposed to be located on each floor. The hard part was actually finding it inside the labyrinth inside each one, and as this month had proved, even the beta's couldn't find it from memory alone.

"First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to Floor Two. The next step is we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it _is_ possible to beat this game." Diabel continued, pumping his fist at the end. "Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree? Or not?"

The crowd looked at each other, feeling inspired by his words, before showing their support with claps and even cheers.

Even Ranma's group was feeling great at the combination of the news and the fact that they were one step closer to the end, even if it was a small step closer. Though they didn't react the same as the others.

"What should we know about the boss?" Kasumi asked Shampoo.

"I'll tell you when he's done. Don't want to miss something if he has more to say." The Chinese girl replied politely.

"Okay, glad to hear you're all with me on this." Diabel told the crowd. "Now, let's figure out how we're going to beat the boss."

"Good idea. My gut tells me we shouldn't approach it like we would in an ordinary game." Nabiki told the others around her, who nodded in agreement.

"It's not too different, just..." Shampoo struggled to find the right words for describing it. "Not like fighting a person. More like fighting pantyhose boy."

"Then we've got nothing to worry about." Ranma said calmly.

Ukyo looked confused. "Pantyhose boy?"

"You don't know about him?" Ranma asked.

"Can't say I do."

"First off, we'll team off into parties of six." Diabel recommended, ignoring their private conversation.

Right away people in the audience were arranging such parties while Diabel said why this was advantageous. Ranma and the others looked at themselves. "Six right here, that works perfectly for us."

"What about Tofu?" Kasumi asked, reminding them of the doctor that had stayed in town.

"He'll probably be happier sitting this one out. I mean, the doc doesn't seem too concerned about leveling up, does he?" Ranma asked.

Akane shook her head. "No he doesn't. It's almost like he's afraid to."

When everyone seemed satisfied in their team arrangements Diabel continued. "Alright, looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then-"

"Hold on a second!" After this initial shout, a man with orange-brown hair in an odd spiked design carrying a sword on his back rushed up towards the center arena by Diabel. "My name's Kibao, got that? Before we take on the boss I want to get something off my chest." When Diabel showed no objection, Kibao turned to the pavilion, hands on his hips as if to condescend the people hearing him. "We all know about the 2,000 people who died so far yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to them right now!" He pointed at the crowd in a very accusing manner, as if saying everyone here was guilty of murder.

That statement completely soured the mood Diabel had established and caused everyone to either be curious or sad. Shampoo, and even Ranma and the rest, had a feeling where this was going.

"Kibao, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who are ex-beta-testers, right?" Diabel asked.

"Course I mean them. The day this stupid-ass game started the beta guys just up and vanished, right? They ditched all us beginners. They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here; this whole time they've ignored us like we're nothing." Kibao accused, then faced the crowd in a way not unbecoming of a savage dog. "Hell I bet there are some of them here. Come on out beta testers! We should make them apologize to us, _and_ we should all make them give up their money _and_ the items they got. They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?"

'Who does this guy think he is?' Nabiki thought, and she wasn't the only one in the group that thought that. She'd admit that she didn't always do 'honest business', but she wasn't going to demand something be handed to her just like that. This guy didn't even have a good reason to justify his demands. How would the beta testers giving up everything they have prevent more deaths? If anything it would cause more instead.

"Can I say something?"

That was when a large man with dark skin and an ax on his back stepped up next to Kibao, looking very calm but at the same time intimidating.

"Hey, my name's Agil. Kibao right? I want to make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta-testers should be blamed for the rookie's deaths because they didn't help them. And you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't." Kibao answered, trying to sound unintimidated by the big man before him.

Agil then took a small book out of his pocket rather than the item inventory with the words 'Field Guide' as the title. "The item store hands these out for free. It's a guidebook. You got one, didn't you?"

"Sure I got one." Kibao admitted. "So what about it?"

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta-testers." That got some surprise from the audience, making them realize that Kibao's logic had a large hole in it. The betas _had_ warned the other players. Agil turned to the crowd. "Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those player's deaths. I'm here because I want to find out how we're going to beat the boss."

"He's right." Nabiki said, standing up herself and stepping down to the main floor, wanting to say this up close and personal with the spiked-haired accuser. "I've learned a good deal about surviving in my time here, and the Field Guide _was_ made from the charity of the betas. Yes maybe some of them _did_ prioritize their own survival over anyone elses. But who here didn't at least once after the big announcement? Even you Mister High-And-Mighty would want to keep a good spot for yourself if you had found it first, regardless of status. Who do you think you are demanding things be handed to you just because you've been at a disadvantage this whole time?"

"Everyone, let's settle down and get back to the reason why we're meeting here." Diabel intervened.

Kibao looked ready to argue more but left the main floor. "You better not be a beta tester you little she-wolf, or so help me-"

"If you want to kill wolves, you should remember we fight in packs." Nabiki cut him off before returning to her seat.

"Okay." Diabel said before pulling out a Field Guide of his own. "For info on the boss, it's all in here. The same guide book you just heard about. According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an ax and a buckler, he has four health bars, and when the last one turns red he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a talwar. He can change his patterns of attack too."

The group looked to Shampoo, silently asking if that was accurate. The purple-haired girl nodded.

Diabel closed his book. "Now, that's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided up equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the XP. And whoever gets an item gets to keep it. Any objections?"

Nabiki stood up with a hand raised. "No but I do have a question if you don't mind." Kibao scoffed but Diabel nodded. "It's taken us four weeks to find the boss room. I think it's safe to assume that the reason it took so long to do that is because it was moved from where the ex-beta-testers remembered it being. Which implies that some of the details from the beta test have been altered. So is it at all possible that some of the data you just gave us might not be completely accurate anymore if it was provided _by_ beta testers?"

Diabel thought for a moment, and it was a truly valid question. Nabiki looked at the audience. "Like the rest of you I don't want any deaths on my conscience, and accurate information is very important in form of conquest. Doubly so in this death game. It would be downright foolish to assume that the guidebook is correct on everything."

Kibao stood up. "So that means the beta testers are trying to kill us by keeping the real info to themselves and give us crappy info."

Nabiki hit the top of his head with the flat side of her sword, and since this was a safe zone he took no damage and her cursor remained unchanged. "Just drop it already will you?"

"Whoa, never thought I'd see Nabiki hit someone on the head with a weapon." Ranma said.

Akane chuckled. "She _is_ a Tendo, it's in the blood Ranma."

Diabel cleared his throat. "I must admit it _is_ possible that the information is no longer as accurate as it was in the beta trial. The beta version is meant to act as a basic test for the game and to spot any bugs in the software. Not to mention that since the beta test was a solo version so the boss had to be weaker for a single person to be able to defeat it, which we should assume is no longer the case. The final version of any game may be drastically different from the initial beta. Thank you for your question, but for now we have only the guide to work with. We should keep it in mind but like the lady said not be more dependent on it than our own perception. So everyone keep your eyes sharp in the fight and be wary of anything unexpected."

That didn't make Nabiki any less nervous then before. It did give her, and by extension everyone that heard including her party, the reminder to be on guard and open for anything.

"Thanks Nabs, that just reminds us to keep on guard." Ranma said and Nabiki nodded.

"I know the value of accurate information. If the information isn't accurate then deals can go sour, and in this case it could cost some people their lives." Nabiki replied to Ranma and the rest agreed. Kasumi was starting to shake a small bit.

"We'll get through it. I'm sure we will." Akane tried to reassure Kasumi.

"If that's everything, we should leave tomorrow at 10 in the morning." Diabel told everyone. "Meeting adjourned people."

The crowd got up to leave and prepare, and Ukyo was the first in her group to stand. "Well, might as well make some food. Let's go girls."

"Hey!" Ranma complained, making the five girls giggle.

* * *

That night in town the players planning on facing the boss tomorrow were throwing a party. They were chatting, joking, having some of the finer foods the game currently had to offer, and practicing their skills too. Kibao seemed to be getting along with Diabel now and didn't look like someone owed him something now.

The group from Nerima was partaking of the party as well. This was the first time there had been anything remotely festive since Kayaba spoke to them all so a lot of people were hoping for a chance of pace. Food was provided by unknown benefactors but that didn't stop Ranma from sampling some, along with Akane who was fascinated by how the game made it so realistic. Ukyo was working on creating virtual okonomiyaki, something she had yet to do successfully. Nabiki was encouraging a little poker game with some others betting on Col and she was joined by Shampoo and Tofu with several other players. Shampoo apparently had a really good poker face, good enough to even beat Nabiki a few times.

Kasumi meanwhile was out for a walk, wanting some private time. Ever since they got in the game Kasumi had never had a moment alone, none of them really had. Even if she took a bath the only options were in public bathhouses or in lakes, and in either case her sisters were always with her. Fortunately the game had proven that Ranma and Shampoo did not have cursed forms in the game, much to their reliefs, so bathing was no longer something to take special precautions for in their cases.

Away from the party in a road there was that red-cloaked figure from earlier eating some bread in solitude, sitting on a decorative grove. Next to them, but not directly next to them, was a boy with black hair and a blue shirt with a sword on his back. Kasumi didn't mean to stare, but she sensed some discomfort between them. 'Maybe I should watch just to make sure nothing happens that shouldn't.'

She sat down on the other side of the grove, making them look at her. "Don't mind me, just resting my feet." She made an effort of putting her feet up on the bench and leaning back to be more convincing. "I'm Kasumi by the way."

Both of them looked a bit hesitant to answer. But the boy relaxed a bit. "I'm Kirito, and this is Asuna."

The cloaked figure looked to him. "How did you know my name? I never told you."

"Remember when we formed a party together?" Kirito asked, and Asuna nodded. "Didn't you see a second health bar appear under your own? It should have my name next to it, making it visible to you. Just like how your name is visible to me."

The cloaked girl looked at the top left of her vision and saw he was right, under her health bar was a second green line she had overlooked. Next to it was a name written in English. "Ki-ri-to. It's been there this whole time?" She asked, and he nodded. She then lightly smiled. "I don't know how I missed that. I probably wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't told me."

"My guess is that you haven't been around people much in this game so far." Kasumi inquired. She had seen small health bars for her entire group in her vision since they formed a party, letting her know which member was in trouble. Fortunately they didn't obscure her vision, at least now that she was used to seeing them in her peripheral. She was also used to seeing cursors and half-circle health bars around people too, which was strange once she actually thought about it.

"No I haven't. Not to be rude, but I didn't really come here to make friends." Asuna stated.

"Why are you here then?" Kirito asked.

"So I don't lose sight of who I am."

Kasumi herself was intrigued by the answer, but the boy urged the cloaked girl on before she can ask. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to die here, but I don't want to lock myself in a room in the Town of Beginnings and slowly rot away either. I'd rather stay the way I am till the last moment. Even if a monster beats me and I die, I won't lose myself. To this game or this world. No matter what." She answered back, and it was a strange thought that someone thought that they might lose their identity in the game.

"What about you?" Asuna girl asked, directing the attention to Kasumi, certain the homemaker had overheard.

"I never really had any thoughts like that. The sad truth is I don't really have much of an identity to lose to this game." Kasumi confessed, confusing the two teens. "Before I started the game, I spent all my days taking care of my home. I only played this game just to break out of that routine, have some excitement back in my life. I suppose I got more excitement than I bargained for." She lightly joked, but no one laughed. "I once thought about finding a safe place and just staying there, waiting to get out of here without fighting. If it weren't for my family and friends here, I'd probably be doing just that."

Kasumi readjusted her position before continuing. "I've been with my group trying to get stronger, because unlike me they _can't_ sit around and wait for someone else to solve the crisis. They want to go out and try for themselves. I could either stay where it's safe and wait for them to come back, or go out with them and do what I can to help. For the past month, I've been trying that, but I keep wondering if maybe I should just stick with what I'm good at, which sadly seems to be nothing but keeping house for others."

"So what are you going to do?" Kirito asked.

Kasumi smiled. "I've been nervous about fighting, putting my life on the line, and I know I'm not the only one like that. But hearing what you just said, I think I know what I've been missing. Am I going to stop everything and confine myself to a cage where it's safe? Or am I going to have some excitement and be active even if it kills me? I'm afraid of dying just like anyone else here, but you know what? You're right. Living like that would be worse than dying. Not only worse, but dehumanizing. Better I be brave and fight than hide away and let _that_ define me."

Asuna nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Like my father once told me, it's better to die fighting than to die cowering."

"Well I don't want anyone dying on me." Kirito added in. "So let's just be careful tomorrow and give it our all."

Kasumi nodded and smiled. "I think now I can."

For the first time, Kasumi was feeling something she hadn't since the beginning of the game. Excitement about the idea of being in a fight. No one would guess it to look at her, but the fact was Kasumi was raised in a family where combat was a part of life, and she was the first born so she was originally the true heiress to the Tendo dojo. But circumstance and her own sense of responsibility took that away from her and made her into the caretaker of the home rather than the defender of it, though a part of her had often wished that she had instead balanced the two choices instead of dropping one entirely.

In real life Kasumi had been absent from fights too long to be overly comfortable with being in them again, not without a lot of training to make up for her neglect of her original role. So when SAO had been just a game, not real or threatening, she was allowed to be a fighter again without fear, making up until Kayaba's announcement the bravest Kasumi had been in years. Then that all went away when she learned she could die from it, years of caution coming back at her with full force.

Since then, Kasumi had been mostly trying to not slow down the others. The one thing the oldest Tendo daughter hated to be was a burden, and she had no intentions of being one here as well, even though that meant putting herself in danger she didn't want to be in. The effect was similar to a person just going through the motions of what they were doing, she was trying to get stronger but her heart wasn't into it. She just wanted to be where things made sense to her again. And she suspected that was exactly the same thing Tofu was going through as well.

"Kasumi! Where are you?" It was then that Akane's voice broke through, and the slightly armored blue-haired girl was seen looking for her eldest sister.

"Guess my me-time is up now." Kasumi said before standing and stretching. "Nice talking to you both. I'll see you two tomorrow." She then went to her sister who had yet to spot her. She lightly touched the handle of her sword, and this time it didn't feel so awkward having the weapon at her hip. 'I won't lose myself to this game either. Instead, I will use this time and opportunity to _create_ myself. No longer will I just be the unmarried housewife, it's time to find out just what I can be.'

Invigorated, Kasumi left the alleyway where she conversed with the two players and that was when the youngest Tendo saw her in the town plaza. "Thank Kami you're alright!" Akane said as she threw herself at her eldest sister.

"It's a safe zone Akane, I was never in any real danger you know." Kasumi said, but she patted her sister's back. "I'm sorry if I worried everyone. I just wanted some time alone."

"It's okay, just tell us next time. Ukyo is working on the food for everyone since she still can't make okonomiyaki, and she could use your help."

Kasumi just giggled lightly at her younger sister. "Oh my, I suppose I better go help."

With that, Akane felt extremely happy, since Kasumi started to sound like her old self again. Kasumi hadn't intended it, but the others could tell the situation was tough for her this past month.

The rest of the night was spent eating and drinking, and even the Kunos weren't around to ruin the moment.

* * *

After the party when everyone decided to get some rest, Shampoo excused herself from the group, claiming she needed to check up on something that had been bugging her. By now the group knew that if something bugged Shampoo then it was a bad thing, and this was one she said she needed to check on her own.

Using her natural talent for stealth instead of relying on a game skill, Shampoo followed her target until he was away from the others.

"Is there a reason you're following me?" He asked.

She came out of the shadows. "I'm not here to attack you if that's what you're thinking. It would be pointless here. I wanted to ask you something, away from others, Diabel."

"Such as?" The blue-haired boy asked.

"Your name is familiar to me. Are you a former beta tester?" Shampoo asked, certain that's why his name was familiar to her.

Back during the beta test, the players involved had to play solo versions, unable to interact with each other. However there was an online forum for them to chat on and share their experiences, where everyone used their online names to protect their identities. Shampoo had used her own name mainly because she hadn't been able to think of an alternative, plus she figured few people would believe Shampoo was her real name. While she couldn't remember every name she saw on the forum, the name Diabel rang a bell for her.

Diabel smiled. "I take it you're one too."

"I am."

"And I take it you didn't come here just to ask me that." Diabel added.

"Not really. I wanted to talk beta-to-beta about your little plan." Shampoo told him. "Don't you find it a little odd that none of us betas were able to find the boss's room until today?"

"To be honest, yes. But it's only expected that things have been adjusted since the test."

"Then why are you leading a team of rag-tags into this battle?" She asked.

"Pardon?" He asked back, raising an eyebrow.

"You said at the meeting that it was and I quote, our duty as the most capable players in the game to fight the boss. Unless you spent all month with everyone present, there's no way you would honestly believe the best players in the game had actually shown up. For all you know the real best players were already trying to beat the boss while you were there talking about it."

Diabel lightly frowned and crossed his arms. "Are you saying that only the beta testers have a chance at winning this fight?"

"No, but you must admit we have the best odds since we have experience against this boss. I can understand your attempt to encourage the more frightful players to be brave. In fact, I actually admire it. However, you should be taking measures to minimize casualties as well as raise hopes. Don't you think making this fight an open invitation one could lead to unnecessary deaths?"

"Not if we work together to defend each other."

Shampoo didn't look convinced. "Diabel, have you ever been in a fight outside of a video game?"

"Have you?" He challenged.

Shampoo surprised him with a nod. "I come from a town where martial arts is the cornerstone of our way of life. Ever since I've been able to stand I've been a practitioner of the Art, and I am considered the town champion. I am a real warrior, not just in this game. And I can tell you with absolute certainty that leading a cluster of novices to a battlefield is a bad idea. To quote something I once heard, a thousand farmers could not defeat a hundred samurai."

"Well then, if you're an expert, what do you think we should do?" Diabel pressed, trying to sound as friendly and patient with her as he had been with Kibao earlier.

"First, I would ensure that everyone involved knows how to fight in a party. Then I would find a couple of large animals, like bears or something, and have them practice against those. Then I would say that only players of a minimum level would be included, mostly to ensure no low-level players are in over their heads."

Diabel smiled. "I'm glad you're concerned about the lives of everyone here, but personally I believe that with enough courage anyone could beat the boss tomorrow."

Shampoo frowned. "If courage was all that was needed to win then only cowards would lose."

"Then try not to be a coward tomorrow." He said before walking off.

"You are so idealistic it's naive." Shampoo added in before walking away. 'My group will die under his leadership. It's up to me to keep them all alive.'

The whole time, the two had been unaware that someone had been listening in, not happy about what he had heard.

* * *

The next morning everyone planning on participating in the boss fight met up at the amphitheater at 10 AM as scheduled then followed a clearing party to the tower. The path took them through a forest and past another town they avoided going to.

"Everyone, don't listen too much to what the so-called knight tells you to do." Shampoo told her group in a whisper. "He's a fool who's probably never even made a fist in real life, let alone been in a fight outside of a game. Believe me, after talking to him I wouldn't trust his leadership anymore than I trust Mousse to keep his glasses on."

So far Diabel had yet to do anything that Shampoo had suggested he do. He didn't make the teams practice, he didn't go over any strategies that might work, he didn't even ask about levels. It was like as far as he was concerned if you wanted to fight that was all you needed in order to join in. Shampoo on the other hand had made her group wake up at dawn to go get in some extra last-minute practice and healing supplies.

"So then, fearless leader, how do we do this?" Nabiki asked, referring to the fact that Shampoo was still sort of the one in charge of the group regarding what to do on the battlefield. She hadn't led them wrong yet, and no one had challenged her for the role, so the position just sort of stuck. If they were a guild she was the leader.

"We are assigned to work on the Ruin Kobold Sentinels first. There's no telling how many there are. I think we should split into pairs so we can hit them with the switch tactics." Ukyo suggested.

"That sounds great. And if we face the boss we should try the same." Ranma added.

"You think it would work against the boss?" Akane asked.

"It couldn't hurt to try." Shampoo answered. "I should warn you though that when a boss monster's health turns red, their defense increases a bit so it becomes harder to hurt them. Just be glad they can't recover health."

"I kind of feel bad leaving Tofu behind." Kasumi said. "I mean, we made a fuss about me staying behind the first week we were here. It seems unfair to leave him instead."

"We offered, and even asked him more than once. He chose to stay and wait." Ranma reassured. "We'll come back for him once this is over. We won't leave him behind."

It took some time and a few fights with minor monsters before they finally got where they were going, the elusive room of the first floor boss. Before they went inside, Diabel stood in front of the doors and addressed his followers. "Listen up everyone, I've only got one thing to say to you. Let's win."

There was no cheering, probably a subconscious thing to avoid alerting whatever was on the other side of the door that they were here. Not that such a thing would have likely been an issue.

"Come on." The blue-haired boy told everyone as he opened the door, which was surprisingly easy to open. The room on the other side was dark but the walls were lined with pillars built close to them, and a crisscrossing pattern of sorts was on the floor. The group walked in a bit, waiting for something to come out of the darkness when suddenly the lights came on, making the walls a soft sort of psychedelic.

Then something jumped out of a large throne at the far end of the room, landing just shy of the halfway point. It looked like something that could be considered a mix between a lizard and a kangaroo, colored maroon and sporting purple shorts and a black helmet and leg pads with a large cleaver-like ax in one hand and a shield in the other, a sword strapped on its back. It roared like a dinosaur and the name Illfang the Kobold Lord appeared above it along with a red cursor and four health bars.

After that, there was some lights glowing and three small human-sized creatures looking like dinosaurs dressed in knight armor appeared brandishing maces. They were revealed as Ruin Kobold Sentinels and had only one health bar each.

"Three minions? This is nothing." Ranma noted.

"Keep in mind Airen that compared to the rest of the bosses in the game this guy is _supposed_ to be easy to beat." Shampoo pointed out.

The monsters then charged at the players. Diabel pointed his sword forward like some kind of general. "Commence attack!"

As one, everyone began the plan of attack. Once the fight actually started more Sentinels appeared next to the players, catching some of them by surprise. Diabel gave orders to keep the battle going in a smooth direction and everyone followed his design. Most of the players started to work on Illfang while Ranma and the rest concentrated on the Ruin Kobold Sentinels, and they weren't the only one as the two players that Kasumi spoke with last night were also working on the sentinels.

The switch tactic had come in very handy as Ranma rushed in with Akane and Shampoo to strike one. Ranma made the first strike and guarded a strike from the enemy's mace and created an opening for Akane to strike, and Shampoo finished it off with a mace skill and ensured the first Sentinel's death.

Kasumi had been unusually aggressive this time around and made the first strike, blocking a strike with her shield, even if she took a little bit of damage from the impact, and let Nabiki make a quick strong blow, with Ukyo taking care of the finishing blow with her ax. This teamwork allowed them to make short work of the Ruin Kobold Sentinels, but the battle was still far from over. Many players were using the switch tactic and making sure that they did some damage to the boss itself. In the time between the initial encounter, Ranma and the rest had added a few blows to help quicken the defeat of the boss.

"So far the info's looking good." Nabiki commented, as the HP gauge of Illfang had dropped into the red. It roared out and threw the shield and ax away from itself.

"Stand back! I've got it!" Diabel called out before rushing in himself, and everyone did as they were told. Something didn't feel quite right, and it was first noticed by a few individuals: Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, Nabiki, and Kirito when they noticed the sword. It wasn't a talwar like in the guide but a single edged sword that had an slight curve similar to katanas.

'That's not a talwar, but a nodachi!' Was the thought that crossed all their minds, and that meant the rest of the information was wrong!

"Wait stop!" Kirito shouted out, getting some people to glance at him. "It's no good!"

Diabel paid him no mind and went at Illfang with a glowing sword. While he was doing that, something came flying at him from behind, something that clearly did not come from the boss, which started jumping around the top of the room, becoming unhittable by anything short of a good archery skill. Diabel got hit in the back while Illfang was jumping and he paused, the object revealed to onlookers as a small throwing ax.

Kirito gasped. 'That's a player's weapon, someone threw that at him. But why?'

While Diabel was frozen in place Illfang got above him and dove down. Diabel got hit and a large red mark looking like the digital version of a flesh wound was seen. And if that wasn't enough, Illfang followed with another swing that sent Diabel flying like a baseball.

"Diabel!" One of the surprised players shouted just seconds before Illfang landed next to the group, testing their courage as he stared them down and snarled.

Right then as the boss was distracted, Ranma, Kasumi, and Shampoo charged in to attack while Akane and Kirito went to check on Diabel. Ukyo and Nabiki focused on the remaining Sentinels, supported by other fighters.

"He's not dead yet but his HP is depleting quickly." Akane noting, seeing Diabel's bar was already in the red and still going down. She moved him to see the throwing ax still embedded in his back, with small red particles floating off him like evaporating blood. She pulled it out, making him cry out a bit, but the wound remained.

Kirito pulled out a medicine bottle. "What the hell were you thinking going in alone? I thought the plan was to attack as a group." He tried to put it in the blue-haired boy's mouth, but Diabel actually stopped him.

"What are you doing? Take it or you might die!" Akane told him, only to be ignored.

"You know what I was thinking." Diabel weakly said to the black-haired boy. "You were a beta tester too, weren't you?" He suspected as much given how Kirito and Asuna seemed the least social at the meeting, implying they were solo players and odds were one of them if not both were beta testers.

Kirito gasped. "You were after the last attack bonus? The rare item?"

"Never mind that. Just take it." Akane said, grabbing the bottle and trying again to force it in Diabel's mouth, only to have him turn away. "What's wrong with you? Do you _want_ to die?"

"I'm not important. I have nothing to go back to anyway. But everyone here does. Please, defeat the boss, for everyone." Diabel requested before his HP reached 0 and he disintegrated.

Both Akane and Kirito, and everyone who saw Diabel die were speechless. This was the first player death many of them had actually witnessed.

"Good, one lousy beta down, and one to go." One of the bolder players spoke up.

"Only one left to get then." Kibao added, eyeing Shampoo who returned to fighting another Sentinel. He ran at her with his sword, wishing to skewer her from the back. Two others joined him in the attempted assault.

However Shampoo was not the novice warrior they were. Whereas these players had no real life training for combat at all, Shampoo had it in spades, and could have heard them approaching even if she was deaf in one ear. She pushed the Sentinel back and deflected all three players strike with her mace in a sweeping move.

"What the hell?" Akane asked, seeing people attack Shampoo out of the blue like she was the boss, who by the way was fighting several other players including Ranma and Kasumi. Tightening her hold on her weapon she got up and went to assist the purple-haired girl.

Kirito meanwhile stood up after a moment and gripped his sword, joined by his cloaked partner Asuna. "I'll go too." She told him.

"Okay." They then ran right at Illfang. "We'll hit him just like we did the minions."

"You've got it."

Illfang pushed the others fighting him back and saw the two coming at him. He charged up his own sword, surprising some fighters who were unaware monsters could have sword skills too, and attacked the male member of the duo, who used his own sword skill to take the hit and deflect it, creating an opening for the girl to strike at.

While this was going on, Akane, Nabiki, and Ukyo went to support Shampoo from Kibao and other players determined to kill her. A couple of other players joined in while the rest watched in sheer confusion while trying to recover lost HP.

"What the hell is your problem?" Akane all but shouted, standing between her sister and the Amazon to create a united front.

"That woman is a beta tester. I heard her confess the whole thing with that lying Diabel last night." A man replied. He looked about the same age as Tofu, only with a more angular face and hair that looked more like a mahogany version of Tatewaki's. Also he didn't look Japanese, more American or European, somewhere along that ethnicity. His stance and projection told Shampoo and Ukyo that unlike the others this guy knew how to carry himself in battle, meaning he had some training in real life as well.

Kibao all but snarled. "That explains why he had that meeting in the first place. He was trying to collect cannon fodder to cover his own ass, make us wear down the boss and die while he goes in when it's weak and finishes the job." Whatever respect he had gained for Diabel died immediately once he heard that the blue-haired young man had been a beta tester. Which he heard that morning before the raid group properly formed, his group deciding to use this opportunity to kill the two outed beta testers as well as the boss.

"And what of it?" Ukyo challenged.

"If anyone in this game deserves to die, it's the beta testers." Kibao insisted like it was a law or something.

"He's coming back." Kirito could be heard yelling while fighting Illfang and everyone looked to see if the boss was coming their way. Kirito went in and met the creature swing for swing to keep him busy while Asuna, her cloak now destroyed leaving her uncovered, went back for a stab. This worked well and the others sort of watched.

Then suddenly Illfang got a lucky hit and hurt the boy, making him fly back and crash into Asuna. His HP went down but stayed in the green, suggesting his damage resisting skill was higher than Diabel's had been. Illfang stood over them both ready to chop them with one swipe, and Asuna was pinned down unable to get away. So she tried to block.

From behind her came help from Agil, using an ax to deflect the nodachi and push Illfang away from the downed players. Ranma charged in, wanting a piece of this creature and hacked at the boss.

"Why should you get all the fun?" Kasumi joked as she came up beside him and hacked away too.

"We can hold this bastard off until your health's back up." Agil told Kirito.

"You got it."

Shampoo suddenly rushed in, followed by the rest of her group and all the other players not trying to kill her too, leaving Kibao and the rest behind. Everyone attacked Illfang with everything they had. The sudden onslaught of offensive maneuvers forced the beast to go on the defensive, especially since its health was dangerously low but not going down fast enough for the player's liking. Illfang did a sweeping strike forcing the players away from it but damaging none of them and jumped back into the air, hoping to strike from above since it worked the last time.

His health recovered, Kirito moved in. "Watch out!" He warned so no one would get in his way then jumped right at Illfang with his sword charged. "You're going down!" He hit the monster giving it a good wound but still not enough to kill it. When he landed he went back for it. "C'mon Asuna, help me beat this sucker. One last attack."

"You got it." She told him, joining up at his side, armed and ready to kill. Illfang got to his feet while they ran at him with battle cries. Illfang tried to deflect them and again Kirito deflected him in return so Asuna could attack, her move actually making Illfang drop his nodachi. Kirito moved back in and hacked the kobold like some kind of butcher, yelling as he carved in a vertical gash before Illfang finally lost all HP and was destroyed.

The word Congratulations appeared in the air in white, marking the fight officially over. Everyone in the room save one person cheered.

Kirito was panting as he noticed a message notifying him that he got the last attack bonus. Ranma and everyone got some Experience and Col too but they didn't care about the prizes. Well, Nabiki cared about the Col but that was to be expected. They were just happy that the boss was defeated, and it sent a clear message: the game _could_ be beaten. It was a small victory, but a necessary one. They were on the proverbial journey of a thousand miles and they had just taken the first step.

"Nice job." Asuna told her partner.

"That was some fine swordsmanship. Congratulations, today's victory is all thanks to you." Agil said and gave Kirito a pat on the back. Everyone, even Ranma and the gang, looked at Kirito with a degree of admiration, though he looked uncomfortable with the praise.

"Stop cheering!" A voice called out in a demanding tone, and all the celebration ceased. It was Kibao and he stared at the victor. Everyone's focus was now on the spiked-haired man. "This isn't over yet. That purple-haired woman needs to die too."

Shampoo frowned and took up a stance. "You want me? Come and get me."

One of the players tried throwing a small ax at her, meaning this one was obviously the one to attack Diabel if the orange cursor wasn't already a dead giveaway. Before it could hit, Kasumi intercepted and blocked it with her shield.

"If you want to get to her, you're going to have to get through all of us first." She declared as the group from Nerima stood before Shampoo to help guard her.

"So the beta-bitch brought along her own guild. Typical of such people." The one who eavesdropped on the private chat last night commented.

Shampoo put her hand on Kasumi's shoulder, who looked at her and saw in her eyes what the Chinese girl wanted, then nodded and stepped aside. Shampoo walked forward, unafraid, clearly presenting herself as a proud courageous woman. She smiled in a way that looked fiendish and chuckled a bit in an identical way.

"So you overheard me talking to Diabel last night?" She started, a hand on her hip with the other holding her mace. "You heard me admit I'm a beta tester and he did the same because I remembered his name from the beta-only forum. I'm guessing that's all you're focusing on, ignoring the fact that Diabel was too idealistic to plan out a real battle whereas I was the one trying to correct his mistakes."

"Don't bother justifying yourself. All you betas are the same." The older guy proclaimed.

"Oh we are, are we?" Shampoo teased.

One of the younger players pointed an accusing finger. "Yeah you are, you only care about your own survival. You'll even throw away your guild to stay alive. Heck I bet you and Diabel aren't even the only ones here. C'mon, show yourself." He demanded to any other beta tester who could hear him, and by chance there in fact was one.

'Do I admit it or not?' Kirito, the only other beta tester in the room, asked himself. He knew full well that outing himself would make him a prime target for potential player killers and permanent social isolation in the game, and while he didn't mind that, he did mind the fact that his levels weren't high enough to guarantee safety just yet. 'Then again, hers can't be much higher than mine, but she's got a group to help defend her.'

Unaware of this little dilemma, Shampoo smirked and continued on with her own. "My name is Shampoo, and if you want to fight an ex-beta-tester, you should deal with me first. Only I won't go down as easily as Diabel did. In fact, I won't go down at all."

"Big talk girl." Kibao challenged.

"Oh I can back it up. You see, I'm no ordinary gamer. I'm a martial arts expert, have been my entire life. And I'm one of the best in the world. I can do things you didn't even know were possible outside of a game. Unlike you, I don't need game skills to do my fighting for me, I bring my own. This whole time, I didn't use a single sword skill, and my health never dipped even once. If my level was based on my real life strength, I'd be able to fight bosses as high as Floor 90 now."

This of course was an exaggeration, but she needed to get the point across that she wasn't one of those gamers who had no talent beyond the game itself. The beta testers were hated because of the unfair advantage they had over the remaining players, but what made the others brave in the face of one was the fact that the betas were still only gamers and were as dependent on the system to give them strength as anyone else was.

But not Shampoo. She brought her own strength into the game, diminished a bit by an enforced leveling system but still there. Even if she was armed with just a stick she could beat someone twice her level because she knew how to truly fight rather than go through the motions and have the game do the rest.

And she wanted them all to know this.

Many of the players looked at the Amazon in shock and fear, and to some degree respect and disbelief. The older man looked unimpressed. "A likely story. Why don't you prove it to me?" He then pulled out a dagger.

Shampoo shrugged and tossed her mace behind her, which was caught by Nabiki. "Your funeral."

"Shampoo don't!" Ranma insisted, but Shampoo held up a hand to silence him.

"I got this Airen." She then looked at her challenger. "It's not polite to keep your name hidden if you're dueling."

The man grinned. "Call me PoH." He pronounced it as Puu, making it sound too humorous to be imposing. "And draw your weapon."

"I don't need a weapon to beat the likes of you."

No official duel was made, PoH just went at her with his dagger. He had expected her to drop a facade of a confident warrior and resort to something to defend herself. What she did was rush at him in return, unarmed and unafraid. The sheer unexpectedness of this made him falter on his trajectory and create an opening for Shampoo to attack him with, which she did with gusto by hitting him in the left kidney with a solid punch.

PoH went down but he rolled and got back up quickly. But Shampoo was quicker and kicked him in the face, knocking him down again. She took the opportunity to take his dagger away, before tossing it away like she had her mace. "Your health is yellow, give up or I'll make it red." She warned, referencing the health bar around him which was low but not dangerous.

Kibao suddenly grabbed his sword and charged at Shampoo, and since this wasn't an official duel nothing was there to prevent him from intervening. But that applied to everyone in Shampoo's group too and they intercepted and knocked Kibao on his ass for his act. He took only a small amount of damage, but he felt like he had run into a wall.

"Damn you!" Kibao yelled. "You beta testers are all monsters! It's not enough that before this game even started you flaunted being able to play it ahead of the rest of us, but now you got to destroy us in the game itself?"

"You know what I think?" Nabiki asked. "I think when it came time to beta-test this game you were one of the people who tried to become a tester, but you didn't get selected. You're mad that a thousand people got to play this game before you and have that advantage here. An advantage you don't. That's why you hate the beta testers so much, you're jealous of them. You wanted to be one of them."

"That's it!" Kibao said and tried to run Nabiki through with his sword again. He was already tired of being called a loser from the 'she wolf', but he didn't get the chance. Ranma had managed to block it and stare the man down.

"The goal's beating the game, not each other!" Ranma said firmly.

"I will never accept this. As Kami is my witness, I will see to it that all you damn betas never make it out of this game alive." Kibao declared.

"Same here!" PoH added, and it looked like a few other players supported these two in their desire.

"Then you'll have to kill me too." Kirito announced, having equipped his last attack bonus, a black cloak, making him look almost as imposing as Nabiki did. "I'm Kirito, and I'm even better than the other beta testers. Most beta testers could barely level up, but me? I'm the best this game's ever seen. I've gone to the highest floors. I know the most secrets. I can easily beat this game on my own. This girl's got her own skills," He gestured to Shampoo before pointing his thumb as his chest. "And I've got mine. You don't want to mess with either one of us."

Everyone was wondering what this boy was getting at claiming this. Nabiki on the other hand was quick to recognize it. 'He's trying to get these guys to lose support by making them seem much weaker. These anti-beta guys could probably turn a lot of players against the betas with enough propaganda, but he's trying to make it seem like everyone's better off leaving the betas alone.'

Judging by the looks on some player's faces, it was working. They were conflicted between things they had heard from differing sources now and didn't know what to do.

Kibao looked infuriated, but less likely to attack. This boy claimed to be some sort of VRMMORPG prodigy, and the girl seemed strong enough to not need sword skills in a game based around them. They were threats, but not ones he could just attack and vanquish like he could an animal in the field. "If that's true, then you two really are the worst betas there are. You're both nothing but damn cheaters."

"Betas and cheaters, you're Beaters, that's what you are." One of the other players accused, cleverly combining the two words.

Kirito smirked. "Beater eh? That's good, I like the sound of that. Alright, call me that, just remember that I'm not as easy to beat as other things in this game."

"Same here." Shampoo added, liking the sound of the term as well. "As a Beater too, I'm no slouch myself. And I have my own guild to back me up."

Kirito started walking to the door that would lead him to the second floor, and the other players gave him a wide berth as if afraid to get too close to him now. He ascended the staircase without trouble.

"Hey." Asuna called to him before he could get to the door. "That's it? Now that the fight's over you're just going to up and leave without even so much as a goodbye?"

Kirito opened the door to the next floor but didn't enter. "I thought the deal was that it would only be for this fight. Wasn't that what you wanted?"

"That doesn't mean you can just walk away silently. The polite thing to do is at least say goodbye." Asuna repeated.

Kirito acted as if she said nothing. "If someone you trust asks you to join a guild, then don't decline it. There's only so much you can do as a solo player. That's my goodbye." He stepped through to the next floor, followed by Asuna, Agil, and the inhabitants of Nerima that were there. The rest of the men decided to go back to town to tell other players the boss was dead, and warning the other players of the now-dubbed Beaters.

"What about Tofu?" Akane asked.

"We'll be back for him. Trust me." Shampoo said. A month ago, Akane would have laughed at the sentiment, but after fighting in the fields with the Chinese Amazon, Akane had learned Shampoo could be reliable when you let her be.

They went to a room with a large-scale teleport pad. With the calm of experience, both Shampoo and Kirito walked up to it, and the others followed. Once everyone stood still, the pad activated on its own, glowing brightly. It faded almost as soon as it appeared, and the next thing they knew they were in a village they were unfamiliar with. Mountains could be see in the background and in front of them was a sign saying 'Welcome to Urbus'.

"We're here, Floor Two." Shampoo told everyone. "And now that we've come here, we can go back and get Tofu."

Akane nodded, smiling. "Using the teleport pad. That's smart thinking."

Kirito stepped forward and walked away on his own, but Asuna followed him. "You didn't think I'd be that easy to get rid of did you?"

"I'm a solo player. I go wherever I feel like going. And I thought you didn't want me around. You yourself weren't jumping to be with other players either. Besides won't your reputation get hurt if you hang around a Beater like me?" Kirito asked.

"You think I care what people like that think? What's to stop them from getting to me just for fighting alongside you once you're gone? I'm marked either way. I might as well be around the one person in this world I can count on." Asuna argued.

"We should get going." Ranma suggested.

Shampoo nodded. "Teleport, Tolbana." The pad started glowing and everyone from Nerima went back to the town on Floor One. Agil got off the pad beforehand so he was still there in Urbus, watching Asuna and Kirito argue.

'I wonder how long those two will last.' He thought, a bit amused by their antics.


	5. Beyond the Beginner Level

CHAPTER 4 BEYOND THE BEGINNER LEVEL

It didn't take long for the group from Nerima to return to Floor Two, this time accompanied by their final member Tofu. When they got to Urbus, they saw more players in the town, checking out what was now available and looking for fresh new quests.

"Be careful, some of these people might be on the look-out for us." Nabiki whispered, certain that there was a good chance Kibao and PoH had spoken out in an effort to begin a sort of beta tester witch hunt.

"Let's just not draw attention to ourselves." Kasumi suggested as they started walking in the plaza.

Urbus looked different from Tolbana and Town of Beginnings once they stopped to notice it. Here the buildings were made of grey stone as opposed to the more common white on Floor One, and the streets weren't paved. Overall, it had a more rustic feel to it then anything else.

"Urbus feels more like a classic fantasy village then the Town of Beginnings." Akane mentioned, and Shampoo had to agree.

"Yeah, but it is the primary place on the second floor, and now we can buy something new: Crystals."

That got the groups attention. "And Crystals are?" Ranma asked.

"You don't remember when I told you?" Shampoo asked, her eyebrow raised. Ranma shook his head, and several of the others did too. "Well, I mentioned them really early on, so I guess it's understandable you forgot. Anyway, Crystals are the closest things to magic that exists in Aincrad, and each one is different. Some are used for healing, others to restore weapons, and some are good for teleporting without being near a gate like this. There aren't any Crystals for combat, at least none within the floors I've been to, but the good news is that Crystals work as soon as you use them. So a healing one can recover your health automatically."

"That's good to know, at least we won't be as pressured for health." Akane said, but had her bubble burst when she said that.

"No, we can't think like that. Even if a Healing Crystal's power can restore our HP quickly, that just means we have to be more on guard when fighting monsters. The ease would lure us into a false sense of security." It was Kasumi that did the talking, getting a few stares from the group.

"What do you mean?" Nabiki asked.

"Actually Kasumi has the right idea." Tofu added. "Take it from me, these Crystals clearly have their advantages and we'd be stupid to not get any while we can. But having them doesn't mean it's suddenly okay to take more risks. People who suddenly think they can get away with taking more risks have a tendency of pushing their limits, and this game is no place to do that."

Kasumi nodded. "Right, so I'm all in favor of getting these, but we should still fight as if we don't have them."

"Sounds good to me. So let's go get some before the others find out about them." Ukyo suggested.

"How expensive are they?" Nabiki asked.

"Most are cheap but work only once. Bigger ones can do more or be used more than once, but those are expensive as hell. Best to stock up on the cheap ones instead." Shampoo answered, leading them to a market street.

On display on one of the kiosks were shiny blocks, cut like small bricks and lined with silver on the bottom. When Shampoo referred to them as crystals, the others had expected something more along the lines of the standard diamond shape or even rupees from the Legend of Zelda games. Something like this was rather different, though the texture of the blocks themselves looked like genuine gems. Some were blue like sapphires, yellow like gold or amber, pink like quartz, and green like peridots rather than emeralds.

Shampoo bought six of the green ones and six of the pink ones, which depleted her Col to nearly zero. Fortunately the group's shared treasury would compensate for her expense. "These are ones we'll start with to get you used to." She said as she held up one of each to show the others. "The green ones are called Antidote Crystals. Use them if your status is changed to something like Paralyzed or Poisoned. You can use them by saying 'Heal'. This works for both yourself or others, but be sure to hold them close to the affected players bodies for right results. They can also recover lost HP, but they're best used if your status is changed. The pink ones are Healing Crystals, use them the same way but if status is unaffected."

Shampoo passed one of each to the members of her group, but strangely Tofu declined. "I don't really see myself doing much fighting. I'd probably waste them."

Nonetheless, Shampoo forced them into his hands. "Then use them to either heal us if we run out or if you do get hurt."

"C'mon Doc, you're good, stop putting yourself down." Ranma told the only other male around.

"Alright, I'm out of Col, so that means I can't pay up for anything else." Shampoo said. "I suggest we try to find some monsters outside of town to practice on and get more money and items. Here they're going to be tougher than before."

"That's to be expected. Wouldn't be much of a game if it didn't get harder as you advanced." Ukyo said, with her hand on the ax she had.

"Yeah, let's scout out what kind of monsters are around, and see how tough they are." Ranma said, punching a fist into his hand in a confident manner. He was glad the boss fight was over, and hated the fact that someone died, but he was also ready to find a new challenge. That had been most of his life, when one challenge is done go find another.

"Don't you guys think maybe you should rest up a bit after such a big fight?" Tofu questioned.

"I feel fine." Ranma said.

"Me too." Akane added.

"Same here." Shampoo replied.

"Ditto." Kasumi finished. "I probably should feel tired, but strangely I don't. Must be an adrenalin rush or something."

Ranma came up to Tofu and patted his back in an encouraging way. "C'mon, live a little. It's not like we have much else to do in this game."

"Yeah, not much else." Tofu said grimly.

"Why don't you guys go on ahead? I'll stay here and have a little talk with Tofu." Kasumi suggested.

"You sure?" Akane asked. 'While Tofu's shown a remarkable, for him anyway, ability to restrain himself around Kasumi this past month, he's never been alone with her either. I wonder if he can still keep his cool then.'

Kasumi nodded. "Yes I'm sure. Go on without us. We'll find you on the map later."

"Umm... actually you can't." Shampoo claimed.

"Why not?" Kasumi asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Once we reach Floor Two, maps are no longer automatically provided. You have to either make them as you go, or buy them from someone who's already been in the area. If you tried finding us, you'd be told the basic compass point, but no way to actually get to us."

"Then we'll be here waiting for you." Kasumi replied.

"Alright. We won't be long. Try not to get too restless with that adrenalin rush and everything sis" Nabiki joked.

The younger members of the group went off into the mountains around town, Shampoo directing them north, leaving the two oldest members behind. Kasumi went to a bench and gestured for Tofu to sit beside her.

"Tofu, as long as I've known you, I thought of you as a dependable if somewhat awkward man." Kasumi started, failing to see his briefly hurt look. "I never really understood why sometimes your composure would just leave you like that, but I never saw you be unprofessional, and every time Akane got hurt you always knew what to do. I don't even want to think about what my family might have been like without you in our lives."

That made the doctor look more cheerful.

Kasumi briefly closed her eyes. "But since this game started, somehow that hasn't been the case." That made Tofu confused. "You haven't been prone to your little flights of fancy this past month and personally I'm grateful for that. Sure they were amusing at first, but over and over again just becomes... well, silly. What you seem to be missing here isn't composure, it's courage."

"Well sorry for not being as brave as Ranma is." Tofu replied, surprising himself that he actually could be sarcastic to Kasumi.

"You don't have to be." Kasumi told him. "I'm sympathizing with you. Once this game became a death game, my courage disappeared too. I was terrified of dying, and I wanted to just go back to the Town of Beginnings and find a place to stay until the game ended."

"We can do that Kasumi." Tofu said, feeling hopeful. "You and I, we're not combatants. We're not in our element on the battlefield. We don't belong here. We belong where we can help others in the ways we do best."

He had been hoping for her familiar smile and maybe an agreement. What he got was an expression of disagreement. "And what exactly would we be doing Tofu? What can we do there that we can't do on the battlefield? In case you haven't noticed, none of our real life skills are useful here."

"Players still need healers." Tofu defended.

"And what would you do? Open a clinic here in Aincrad?"

"Why not? I mean really, why couldn't I?" Tofu asked.

Kasumi took a deep breath before responding. "Let's say you can. First, you need to find a vacant building for sale. You can't get the money for that here in the first place except from fights or quests. And I highly doubt that there are a lot of well-paying safe quests in this game. Then, you need to get the proper supplies to run such a clinic. As Shampoo just pointed out, people can buy Crystals easily on their own. Why would they need to go to a clinic if they can heal their own ailments with just a gem? Can you make your own?"

"No, but I'm sure there's a medical skill in the inventory list I can learn." Tofu claimed.

"Then let's say you do learn such a skill. How can you use it if you're in a clinic? If you're in a safe zone, people won't be hurt to begin with, and if by chance someone _is_ hurt, they would probably recover their lost HP before getting to you. Health and injuries work differently in this world Tofu, I thought if anyone had seen that by now it would have been you. People could die here literally seconds after being hit. They'd need _immediate_ attention. How can you provide that if you're tucked away somewhere safe while the ones needing help are on the battlefield?"

Kasumi leaned in closer to Tofu to look in his eyes, which made his heart beat more rapidly. "And what about me? What I did best before this game was take care of a house. How can I do that when we don't _have_ a house? I'm sure not devoting my time to cleaning up an inn room or camp site. Tofu, right now there's nothing for me to do _but_ learn how to fight. Yes it's scary being in battle and I don't want to die, but I've decided I'm not going to keep myself alive at the expense of having a life."

Her phrasing only confused the doctor. "Huh?"

"Let me put it another way. The other day I talked to someone and they helped me understand something. I realized that this game is dangerous, but it's also an opportunity. I had no life before, I had no identity. I was just going through the motions of life but never truly living. Here I'm in a situation where my comfort zone no longer exists, but maybe that's not a bad thing. A comfort zone can become a prison if you _refuse_ to leave it. I intend to play this game, I intend to become something here, something _other_ than a mere housekeeper. Even if that means I someday die, at least I'll die on my terms."

"Kasumi don't say that." Tofu requested. "The whole point here is to get out alive."

"I_ intend_ to get out alive. We all do. But while we're here, I might as well play the game. It's not like we really have a whole lot of options." Kasumi said.

'Is this really Kasumi?' Tofu asked himself, finding it hard to believe the quiet homemaker of the Tendo family was actually braver than him.

Kasumi then stood up and stretched her body a bit. "Just think about it Tofu, think about what you'd rather be. Safe but bored, or living on the edge. Right now, we have no other choice, and like the others, I choose living. What about you?"

Before Tofu could answer, someone else spoke up.

"No way! Is that you Kasumi?"

Said girl turned and saw a small group of men a little older than her. The one that looked excited to see her had spiked red hair with a headband around it. She'd recognize that look anywhere. "I can't believe it. Ryotaro-sempai?"

'She knows this guy?' Tofu asked.

"Yeah it's me, but in the game my name is Klein. So call me that here."

"Klein? As in the American underwear maker?" Kasumi asked.

The other boys had a good laugh at Klein's expense for that remark, and even Kasumi chuckled with them. Klein just shrugged it off. "No, but now that you mention it I wish I had given the name more thought before. Oh well, just call me Klein. And what do I call you?"

"I went with my real name here, so just Kasumi."

"Not a lot of gamers use their real names." One of Klein's buddies mentioned.

"I know, but I'm not a professional gamer and this way it was easier for my own group to spot me back when my face was different."

"Your own group heh? Where are they?" Klein asked.

"Out in the mountains checking out the area. I gotta say I'm surprised I haven't seen you here before. What have you been doing all this time?"

"My buddies and I have been working around the west side of Floor One, getting stronger."

"Really? My group and I were doing the same on the east side. We were even in the boss fight earlier."

"No way, you were in a boss fight?" Klein asked.

"Oh course. Why wouldn't I be?" Kasumi asked.

"Well, I can remember how squeamish you were when I tried showing you how to fight in our club's games."

Kasumi huffed, in a way not unlike Akane but with less irritation. "You were showing me a gory game that was about shooting the heads off of zombies. Maybe if you had shown me something like this instead I would have considering joining."

"Wait, Kasumi how well do you know this guy?" Tofu asked.

"Oh, sorry, where are my manners?" Kasumi berated herself. "Tofu, this is Ryo-I mean, Klein-sempai, a friend of mine from high school. One of the most enthusiastic game lovers I've ever known. If fact, in my first year he tried to get me to join the Furinkan video game club."

"I still said you should have." Klein insisted.

"Maybe, but I didn't have time for club attendance in a school where it wasn't mandatory, and you didn't exactly have the kind of games I wanted at the time." She countered, then giggled. "But I still laugh every time I remember how nervous you were that first day."

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Klein asked, his tone showing he wasn't truly bothered by her reference.

"It was funny, you were so nervous and acted like you couldn't decide to ask me to join a club or date you. And you even got the school's name wrong." Kasumi said, still chuckling.

One of Klein's friends elbowed him. "Yeah I remember that now. What was it you said again?"

Klein rolled his eyes but smiled. "I said 'hello, welcome to Furinkazan High' before telling her what kind of girl I was looking for."

The men laughed loud and Kasumi joined in. Tofu watched her, surprised again at how she was interacting with this group of strangers. 'Though this does at least explain why she thought my antics were amusing if his made her laugh too. but I never would have thought Kasumi would have had an interest in games before this one. I thought this was just an impulse decision for her, not something she had an actual interest in.'

As disturbing as it was for him, Tofu was realizing the same thing Ranma had realized a month ago. He didn't know the girl as well as he thought he did.

"You know what? You should call your group the Furinkazan Guild then." Kasumi added when the laughter died.

"You kept calling me Furinkazan-sempai back in school, why call me that here too?" Klein asked.

"Actually Klein, I kind of like the idea of naming our group that." One of his friends said.

"Me too. It's got a good ring to it."

Klein sighed. "Alright then, I guess we're all Furinkazan, so Kasumi can't call just me that anymore."

"Oh I can't can I?" She teased, making them laugh again.

"You want to join our group?" Klein invited.

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to make that decision without the others. Let's wait until they get back." Kasumi requested.

"Works for me, not like we've got any schedules to keep anymore." Klein said.

* * *

Two hours later the others came back to Urbus with a lot more money and other acquired items. Akane was checking the map to see where her sister and the doctor were. They were still in town, and in one of the market streets, neither of them in any sort of danger.

"Good job clobbering that weird bull back there Akane." Ukyo told the short-haired girl.

"Thanks, and good job slowing it down for me. You're getting good with that ax."

"Heh, not that different from a spatula, just different balance."

Akane smiled, glad that she was getting along with the others, her panic attack on the first night all but forgotten. And luckily a talk with her two main rivals helped her feel better about their time in the game too.

(Flashback)

The night after she and Ranma had their own private talk, which was the third night they had been in the game, Akane had requested some alone time with Shampoo and Ukyo. Naturally everyone was unsure what she had in mind, mostly because she had never attempted such a thing before. But just like how Akane wanted to prove to the group that she wasn't going to attack them again, they wanted to prove they didn't believe they couldn't trust her.

"So what's on your mind Sugar?" Ukyo asked when all three girls had their inn room to themselves.

"I'm going to be blunt, last night when we were trying to sleep, I couldn't, so I went outside."

"We know, and Airen followed." Shampoo said, surprising the Tendo. "We weren't exactly sound asleep ourselves you know."

"Just tell us that you didn't break the agreement the same day we made it." Ukyo said, but it could almost be taken as threatening.

"No, I didn't. But something came up that I think you two need to hear, and I think it might sound better coming from me. Mostly because I'm more articulate than Ranma is." Akane defended. "Girls, over the past year we've all tried various ways to get Ranma to like us. Some of us being more determined than others in that aspect. But there's one key element in having a relationship that all three of us overlooked. Ranma doesn't know anything about us."

"What do you mean?" Ukyo asked.

"I mean have either of you ever given Ranma a chance to truly get to know you as people? Without bringing up any engagement or fights or some kind of ulterior motive? Has any of us ever actually tried to fall in love with him? Or were we all just trying to skip to the happily ever after part of the romance?"

Shampoo and Ukyo shared a look. While they weren't willing to admit how true that was, they also weren't going to pretend it was a baseless accusation.

"I admit I've done some things I'm not proud of." Shampoo confessed.

"And I admit I was more interested in getting to the happily ever after part than dating Ranchan." Ukyo added. "But how can he say he doesn't know me? I'm his best friend."

"Yeah, when you two were kids. There was ten years where you never saw or heard from him again. You don't honestly still think Ranma is the same person he was back then do you?" Akane tested.

Ukyo frowned. "Of course not, but I am his best friend even now."

Akane didn't look convinced. "Then Ukyo, if you really are Ranma's best friend, tell me something about Ranma I don't know without mentioning something that happened before you came to Nerima."

"How will that prove anything?"

"If you're really his best friend, you should know him pretty well. So prove it, prove you know something about him that me and Shampoo here don't already know."

Ukyo thought it over, wanting to think of something that was ironclad. But after thinking about it, she was coming up short. It wasn't so much that she didn't know anything about Ranma, but more she had no way of being certain what she knew was something only she knew. After a moment she sighed. "For the sake of argument let's pretend you're right. What exactly are you trying to get at here?"

"What I'm getting at is Ranma doesn't believe he knows us that well. Any of us. That's why he's never bothered answering the unasked question of which one does he love? Even when I did ask him at the failed wedding. Ranma isn't able to answer. It's not he doesn't know, he _can't_ know. The way he sees it, we haven't given him a chance to know the real us."

"Why would he think that?" Shampoo and Ukyo asked.

"I don't know, but the fact is that is how he sees it. But there is hope." Akane replied. "Here, there is no one to try and force him to do anything about it except the three of us, and we've already agreed to not force the issue. This gives us an opportunity, to show Ranma the real us, show us as friends and supporters rather than merely brides-to-be. That's what he wants to see, why he should like us without someone or something telling him to like us."

"Yeah, but how is this any different than what we already expected?" Ukyo asked.

"The difference is Ranma wants to get to know us. All three of us." The short-haired girl admitted, finding this hard to admit but knowing it was vital. "So in a nutshell, he says that if he dates any one of us here, he won't do it unless he can date all three of us."

She paused for a moment, letting it sink in for them.

"That's not so bad." Ukyo stated.

Akane's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

The okonomiyaki chef nodded. "Yeah, I mean, why would it be bad? It's like you said, no one here can force him to pick just one of us except for us, and we all agreed not to try and hog him for ourselves. As long as we keep to that agreement, then if Ranchan wants to get to know us better here, then the only way he can do it is to give us all attention. If he honestly didn't know who he wanted to be with, he wouldn't have a reason to pick one over the rest."

Shampoo slowly nodded in understanding. "Yes, it's the only fair way to him to know what he wants."

Akane nodded. "That's what he kept saying, that it wasn't the best method but the only fair one. To be honest, I thought you two would put up more of a fight here. I mean, this is practically giving him permission to two-time. Or three-time."

"If you have a better idea Akane feel free to say it." Shampoo claimed.

Akane closed her eyes. "I don't, and that bothers me. I feel like there should be a better idea, but for the life of me I can't think of one."

"Maybe there _is_ no better idea Akane." Ukyo suggested. "My father used to tell me there's no such thing as a perfect solution, just like how there's no perfect okonomiyaki. Sometimes you just can't make what the customer wants, so instead try to make the best with what you can and hope it's good enough to satisfy them."

"How does that apply to here?" Akane asked.

"What I'm trying to say is rather than do nothing and hold out for some perfect solution to present itself, take the best solution currently available and go with it until it no longer works. I mean, is that really a bad idea here?" Ukyo stated.

Shampoo shrugged. "I admit I'm not fond of the idea of dividing Airen, and back in the real world this never would have worked even if we did like the idea."

"Same here. Akane's right, I don't like the idea of dividing Ranchan like this either. But the only alternatives are do nothing or break the agreement and fight over him again, and personally I like those ideas even less. Sometimes your favorite food just isn't on the menu so you either go somewhere else or go with the best choice available. And giving Ranchan a chance to know all three of us is just that in my opinion." Ukyo declared.

"So how exactly do we make this work?" Akane asked.

"I think that's something we should talk to Airen about. It concerns him too after all."

"Maybe not right now. He's confused enough as it is, and if we bring up a new way to have some kind of relationship, he'll think we've all got one-track minds." Akane suggested.

"You're probably right." Shampoo said with a nod. "So give him some time to stop thinking about engagements so much, then address the idea?"

"Sounds good to me."

(End Flashback)

It had been a month since that night, and so far it was going well. No one mentioned anything about engagements or family honor or laws, and in turn the girls stopped fighting each other over Ranma's attention. Not to say there hadn't been the occasional argument, but they refrained from making it physical since the threat of death was real.

Without the element of competition between themselves, the three girls were starting to learn that they didn't really have much to fight about in the first place. While they might never be best friends, they didn't have to be at each others throats either. They even had some things in common that they never bothered to pay much attention to before. Shampoo and Ukyo were both skilled cooks and could relate being in the restaurant business, Akane and Shampoo enjoyed martial arts and could relate being brought up in environments where it was a standard of their overall life. And all three knew what it was like being pursued by a boy who would not take the hint that they were not interested, Kuno for Akane, Mousse for Shampoo, and Tsubasa for Ukyo.

If there was one thing to complain about now from their set-up, it was that they were running out of patience regarding when to mention it to Ranma. It had been a month, enough time to let Ranma stop thinking of them as over-dominating. The problem was the way they saw it, Kasumi, Nabiki, and Tofu had no business getting involved in it so it was something to discuss when those three weren't around. And so far there hadn't been a good opportunity for that, nor a good enough reason to justify asking them to leave the other four alone for a bit. The three girls were still holding out, but they really wanted to get this part done and over with now.

"Kasumi and Tofu should be around this corner." Akane said, referencing the map screen. They turned right and went to a different section of the market, where they saw Kasumi and Tofu seated on some benches getting along with complete strangers.

"We're back! Who're they?" Ranma asked as he was a bit on guard. Right now their group was practically public enemy number one because of what happened after the boss fight.

"This is Ryo-I mean Klein-sempai, a graduate of Furinkan High and an old friend of mine. Klein-sempai, this is my group." Kasumi said as Klein suddenly started getting nervous since the group was full of beautiful girls.

"M-m-my name is Klein, I'm twenty-two and-" Kasumi stopped him from going any further, even though she was giggling from the antics.

"Sorry, but he gets nervous around girls. While he was in Furinkan he was part of the kendo club and the video game club. But I think he liked the second one more."

Everyone nodded and felt relieved that there might at least be one sane person to come from Nerima. At least they hoped he was sane, it was hard to tell what exactly counted as sane and insane sometimes in Nerima.

"I'm Nabiki, Kasumi's younger sister, and any other information comes at a price." Nabiki started off, with a gleam in her eyes that could've been yen symbols.

"I'm Akane, Kasumi's and Nabiki's younger sister. Please tell me you have nothing to do with Kuno."

"Who?" Klein asked, unfamiliar with the name.

"That's good enough for me." Akane stated.

"I'm Ukyo, I'm more a chef than a fighter but I can take on anyone who tries to kick my ass and serve their own to them covered in okonomiyaki sauce."

"I'm Shampoo. Don't believe anything you hear about me unless it comes from us."

"I'm Ranma. Please tell me my old man didn't do something with your family too."

Klein arched an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"Oh I'm sure your father's never made any deals or stolen anything from Klein-sempai's family Ranma." Kasumi told him, then looked at Klein. "Though just to be safe, does the name Saotome mean anything to you?"

"Can't say it does." Klein answered. The members of his group then introduced themselves to the others.

"Klein has invited us to be a part of his group. Since this is a group decision, what do you all think?" Kasumi asked the others.

The others looked at each, not sure what to say. None of them had a reason to say no, but at the same time they had no reason to say yes.

"Hmm..." Shampoo hummed, hand on her chin. "The way I see it, it's not so much a matter of familiarity or trust, or even numbers. What concerns me is coordinating the two groups together. We've both spent this past month developing our own skills, styles, and methods. Combining the two, or even getting them in sync, can't be simple. It's more than just a mere switch tactic."

"So what you're saying is rather than just say yes or no, we should see how well our two groups function together?" Nabiki asked.

"Actually that makes sense." Ukyo stated. "It reminds me of a story I heard as a child, where a lion and a dolphin were friends and agreed to be wartime allies so if one ever got into a fight the other would support them. But when the lion did have a fight the dolphin couldn't do anything because he couldn't leave the water, and later the two got into a big fight themselves over it. The message was that you should consider what your friends are capable of doing before asking them to help you with your problems. Had the lion stopped to consider exactly how a dolphin would help him, the problem never would have come up."

"Why not settle this by taking a quest together and seeing how it turns out for ourselves?" One of Klein's friend offered.

"Sounds good to me." Kasumi said. "Anyone know where to find one?"

Shampoo found herself hesitant to answer, even though her group expected her to. 'I've already been outed as a beta, I mean, Beater, so it's not like I need to hide it anymore. But that doesn't mean I need to announce it to the whole world. I think I'll keep it on a need-to-know basis now. Besides, I can only really remember one quest on this floor right now, and I'd rather save that one for later.'

Ranma cleared his throat. "In the mountains I saw this valley west of here with some creatures roaming around it. Maybe we can find something there."

Klein smiled. "Works for me."

* * *

In the valley to the west, which looked an awful lot like an African savannah, Ranma and the others were resting after trying to get the tempo and skills right. So far the skills were good with unison, but it was still lacking something.

"Damn, I think our teamwork would be better off in boss raids." Klein said as some of his teammates agreed. Some of them couldn't keep up with the pace of Ranma and the others. For the past month, Klein's group had been focusing primarily on getting the hang of sword skills and living off the land. They were good at what they do, but they were more of an assault team.

Ranma's group on the other hand seemed better suited for an exploration-and-ambush team. They had also been focusing on their skills and living off the land, but they had also worked on getting their speed up, primarily because Kasumi and Nabiki weren't used to doing a lot of running and needed to get used to being as physical as the others if they didn't want to hold them back in a dangerous situation.

"Yeah, but you weren't half-bad out there." Ranma said as he was recovering his lost HP.

"I suppose so, but it was still a good experiment." Kasumi said, still happy that an old friend was here and they were able to catch up with each other. Games were strange that way sometimes. "Maybe we're better off playing as allied groups rather than a conjoined group."

"If you say so Kasumi." Klein said, then sent her a friend request which she eagerly accepted. "So what are you going to call your guild then?"

"Actually we haven't thought about it yet."

There was a reason for that. Guilds were a standard in MMOs, a term for groups of players fighting together as a unit with their own leader, and SAO offered them. According to Shampoo, the beta testers were told in the instructions that when the game became multi-player there was going to be a quest offered on the third floor that allowed players to form their own guilds. Since the beta test was a solo format, none of them had any way to verify what this quest was or why it was even necessary.

To Shampoo, the idea of a quest to create a guild was pointless. Guilds were naturally formed on their own, by the players. The game couldn't create guilds by that standard, not unless it was creating NPCs. Players were already forming their own parties and calling them guilds since the term was perfectly fitting, so why need a quest to make it official? That was something Shampoo wanted to find out, and once she brought it up to the others, so did they.

"I have." Nabiki piped up. "I think I know a name that's perfect for our group."

"Let me guess, the Wolves?" Ranma commented.

Akane shook her head. "No that would only work if we all had pelts. She's probably thinking of something involving money instead."

"Nice to know how creative you two think I am." The mercenary remarked sarcastically. "My real idea came from a name I heard several times in reference back before the game. People used it to describe pretty much everyone connected to Ranma who stirred up things back home. The Nerima Wrecking Crew."

"I never heard this before." Ranma stated.

"I doubt anyone would have said it to you guys directly."

"Wait, you think we should call ourselves that?" Ukyo asked.

Nabiki shrugged. "Why not? It's fitting, it implies power, and even though we don't have the entire crew here the four of you suffice. I think it's a good name to use here."

"Wait, four of us? Are you saying people put me in that same group too before?" Akane asked, certain that Nabiki, Kasumi, and Tofu had never been referred to this way.

"To be fair Akane, the phrase 'wrecking crew' implies a lot of property damage. Even though you were a lot more mild in terms of that, to the average outsider it wouldn't really matter. Heck Ukyo's considered an honorary member too mainly by default of joining in the fights on occasion. The name mostly referred to anyone who got in fights either against or involving Ranma on a regular basis, so you got lumped in by association more than anything."

"Oh, that makes sense." Akane said, seeing no reason to take this personally. "Hmm... Nerima Wrecking Crew, I actually kind of like it."

"What's your symbol going to be? A sledgehammer?" One of Klein's companions asked.

Akane smirked. "Not a bad idea. I _am_ fond of hammers."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me." The girls all laughed at his remark.

"Well, we'll start clearing out the threats on this side of the floor. Message us if you need us, okay Kasumi?" Klein offered.

Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Okay, and do the same if you need us Klein-sempai. It was great to see you again."

"You too, and before I forget, I gotta ask something." He added.

"What's that?"

"You see, when I first started this game I met a guy. He taught me how to fight in this game, and without him I don't think my buds and I could have gotten as far as we have. But he went out on his own on the first day, choosing to be a solo player. If you ever find him, let me know how he's doing."

Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Okay, not a problem at all. What's his name?"

"Kirito, and he's actually a former beta tester."

Everyone in the group except Tofu widened their eyes. "Kirito?"

"Wait, you already know him?" Klein asked.

"Yeah, I even conversed with him the night before the boss fight. Short boy with black hair, kind of uncomfortable around people but in his element in a fight." Kasumi answered.

"That's him."

"He's probably not too far from here." Akane told him.

"He might have headed for the next town then. Kirito told me the most advantageous place to be in away from the main groups of people so you can collect the most Col and resources before others can get to them." Klein noted.

"Where's the next town?" One of Klein's friends asked.

"We haven't seen any yet, except some off in the distance to the north. But you got to pass some mountains to get to them." Akane told him.

"That sounds like a good place to start."

"We'll try looking to the south then in case he went somewhere else." Kasumi offered.

"Thanks Kasumi, I appreciate it, and stay in touch."

"You too."

With nothing more to say the two groups went their separate ways, with the newly named (or originally named) Nerima Wrecking Crew heading back into the mountains.

* * *

Evening came and the troupe were forced to stop. They had been walking down a path in the southern mountains put there for easier travel, but up ahead there was a large boulder wedged between two cliffs blocking off the path. Up ahead was a man dressed in hiking clothes standing beside some broken tools on the ground. The lack of cursor showed he was an NPC instead of a player.

On reflex everyone looked to Shampoo, silently asking her what she knew about this. She shrugged. "This one is new to me."

They came up to the NPC and he turned to them, giving a programmed look of exasperation. "This boulder needs to go, but no tool or weapon seems to be enough to break it. Think any of you are strong enough?" Suddenly everyone had a screen pop up in front of them, saying 'Quest: Break the boulder without using a weapon'. Then it offered a button to accept and a button to decline. This happened every time a player was offered a quest.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Ukyo asked. "This would have been very easy back in Nerima, but here?"

"It can't be too hard to break." Nabiki stated. "I mean, yes it's a big stone, but given how this is Floor Two and the programmers can't realistically expect our strength levels to be Herculean, or Ranma-like if you will, this boulder has to be weaker than a real life one would be and just programmed to automatically damage any weapon used against it."

"So just hit it until it breaks?" Ranma asked, then cracked his knuckles. "I think I can do that."

"Remember Ranma, you're not as strong as you used to be. Just don't take it too hard if it doesn't break the first time." Akane cautioned.

"Yeah I know." He said, clicking the Accept button and stepping up to the boulder which was as big as he was tall but still too big and wide to actually climb over. Rather than just punch and see what happened, which was his initial plan, Ranma decided he needed to think this one through first. 'Like Nabiki said, the people who made this game couldn't have put this quest here so near the beginning and expect people to be super-strong this soon. So maybe it's not about strength but the way you hit it.'

He tried looking over the boulder for a type of visible defect or weak spot in it, one where the quest taker was supposed to strike. He looked that stone up and down, but he didn't find or sense where the weakness was.

"This might have been easier if I knew the Bakusai Tenketsu, but I don't think there is a breaking point on this. Virtual rocks differ, especially since there are immortal objects." Ranma said, and everyone just sighed in a bit of defeat. Immortal objects were the things in the game that couldn't take any damage, like inn walls or teleport pads. Any attempt to damage them resulted in a purple tile saying 'Immortal Object' appearing, as if to remind the player such an effort was futile.

"This can't be an immortal object. That would defeat the entire point of the quest." Kasumi noted.

"Very true." Shampoo added. "It would be like dueling someone whose HP can't go down."

Ranma then nodded. "Might as well try to break it the direct way. Get something ready if I take too much damage." He then tried to send a powerful punch to it. His fist collided with the stone, and unfortunately no purple warning sign saying 'Immortal Object' came up, and the stone cracked in a web pattern.

"Alright, not bad." Ranma said, feeling proud of himself even though it was only a crack. But as soon as he pulled his fist away the boulder began repairing itself. "What the heck?" He asked, seeing the boulder looking as good as new.

"It must not have been enough." Tofu suggested. "On the plus side you only took a couple points damage, nothing you can't recover from on your own."

"Wait a minute..." Nabiki noted, hand on her chin as she thought for a moment. "Ranma try again, but this time don't remove your fist."

He did as told, hitting it again and this time harder. The web-patterned crack reappeared and Ranma kept his fist in place, forcing it against the stone to keep it from slipping. But the rock began to repair itself again, this time at a slower pace.

"What was that about?" He asked, taking his hand back when the damage was undone.

"It repaired again, but slower this time. Maybe you're not supposed to break it with one solid hit, but rather a quick succession of hits. Hit it again, but this time try using the Amaguriken method as best you can here. If I'm right, then this boulder repairs itself if you stop hitting it, so hit it so fast and so hard that it doesn't have time to repair itself and crumbles."

Ranma perked and smiled. "Great idea Nabiki."

Ranma tried to use the Amaguriken, but as he kept trying, it was repairing to some degree as fast as he was punching it. 'This is tough, but if I keep it up, then I might still be able to break it.'

The problem was that because the Amaguriken wasn't an in-game move the system only recognized it as a series of rapid punches in left-and-right coordination. It wouldn't boost Ranma's speed or strength when he used it because as far as the game was concerned Ranma was just moving around, not attacking. The game only got involved in movements that were recognized by the system, such as sword skills, which made them stronger and more accurate than they would have been in real life.

After a while though Ranma's arms gave out and he had to stop. It may not have been his real body he was using, but it was just as exhausting to use. The boulder was covered with cracks and looked like it was just barely holding together, but it repaired itself quickly and became whole again.

"This is too much. In my real body I could handle it, but here, I'm just not fast enough." He lamented, rubbing his aching arms.

"Airen, I have an idea." Shampoo said, tapping the 'Accept' button then getting up next to him. "I think you can beat this with your current speed, but it will require some very careful timing. I'll start it off for you, then after a bit we do a switch and you finish it off before it can repair."

"You think that will work?" Tofu asked.

"It wouldn't hurt to try." The Chinese girl said before facing the boulder herself with Ranma beside her. She pumped her fists and repeated the Amaguriken herself on the boulder. The reaction was the same, a crack appeared with each hit but tried to repair itself seconds after she stopped, with only an added attack delaying the repair process, and another added attack delaying it more.

The boulder was taking on a lot of collective damage, but it was beginning to wear Shampoo's arms out. "Switch!" she insisted without stopping or pulling back. Ranma jumped in and attacked from a separate again, allowing Shampoo to rest her arms.

The timing and switch process had turned out to be perfect, for the boulder apparently wasn't programmed to repair itself in the event of a successful switch. Ranma's attacks added onto the damage Shampoo had already given it, and after a dozen good solid hits, it finally crumbled into rubble that dispersed in digital dust, making it look like the boulder had never been there in the first place.

They blinked at the good timing and use of skills. Then Ranma and Shampoo smiled at each other and high-fived each other.

"Good job Airen."

"You too Shampoo."

"Thank you for clearing the path. I'll be on my way." The NPC said before walking away. No one bothered to pay any attention to it or the fact that their quest screens had disappeared automatically.

Suddenly a new screen appeared before them both. 'Congratulations, quest completed.' It then told them how much Col and XP they gained, but at the bottom it mentioned something else, a special bonus. Curious, the two tapped it and the screens changed. 'You have acquired new skill: Martial Arts Karate. Equip to self for proper use. Click here for further details.'

"I can use the Art again?" Ranma asked, almost unable to believe it. It was something that felt great, like he was getting back something precious he had lost.

"That's wonderful Ranma." Akane praised.

"I heard something about unarmed skills before, but I never got to see any of them in the beta test." Shampoo said, then tapped on the button for further details. "Martial Arts, the collection of weaponless attacks available in SAO. Available in many forms throughout Aincrad, but can only be obtained by completing certain quests." She read. "Hmm... must be some sort of unique skill that comes in a variety of forms."

"Unique skill? You mean it's not something just anyone can learn?" Akane asked, already hoping she could acquire a form of martial arts of her own while in the game.

"Not quite, I probably used the wrong way to say what I meant right there." Shampoo clarified. "Most of the skills in the game are public domain, meaning any player can have them. Some are more more specialized, but that's more because some players work to enhance them then others do so they get more advanced versions, but there's nothing to stop other players from getting them too. But there are some skills that are limited in quantity. A unique skill by standard definition is a skill that only one player in general has at all, for one reason or another, and other players cannot acquire it."

"Is that what you two now have?" Ukyo asked.

"I would think that, but then why would both of us have it?" Shampoo asked. "No, I'm thinking this is more of a limited or prized skill, meaning more than one person can have it, but they have to earn it first or it's only available to acquire for a short time. We'll know for sure if this quest ever becomes available again in the future."

Some quests were repeatedly available. They were easy to finish but gave small rewards, but if a player waited long enough they're become available again so other players could take them or the first player could get more rewards. Of course the harder a quest was, the longer it would take to return, and some quests were either limited themselves in how often they could be accepted or one-time only and that was it. A quest that offered a skill was bound to be one of the latter two.

Shampoo went back to the menu description. "Martial Arts Karate is the most basic form of weaponless skills in SAO, but also the most adaptable and comes with the most moves to learn or incorporate. Equip skill to perform, then select available moves in options to have available for use."

"Huh? What does that mean?" Akane asked.

"I didn't explain it sooner because it's never been much of an issue, but the fact is you need to equip some skills to yourself in order to perform them." Shampoo said, then pulled up her personal menu. "Everyone check their menu, this will help you understand better."

Everyone did as told and she continued. "When you look at yourself in the menu, it tells you what you have equipped to yourself. See it?" Everyone nodded. On a screen showed a human silhouette with a dozen circles around it, some of them with writing beside it and some of it blank. One of the circles said clothes, and this was on each of them, while the others listed various weapons and equipment. Ranma and Shampoo now had a formerly blank circle have the words 'Martial Arts' next to it.

"Like I told you, this tells you all the things you actually have out for ready use rather than in your storage. What I didn't tell you, because there was no point to it yet, was that your fighting styles are equipped the same way. When you equip a sword, you equip appropriate sword skills to go along with it, but you can only have so many skills equipped at a time. Eventually you guys will acquire more skills, too many to have equipped all at once, then you will have to select which ones you want to keep ready. Try to have your best ones out first, since switching skills can take up to ten seconds, not something you should be doing during a fight. All the ones you don't have equipped will be in your storage."

"Oh I see. There's no limit to the amount of skills we can have, but there is a limit on how many we can actually use at a time." Tofu clarified.

"Yes, that's exactly what I was saying. Also, as you level up you can equip more, and not all skills require things to be worn by you. Like the cooking skill for example. That would fill up one of these circles."

All of the girls of the group except for Nabiki had a cooking skill, acquired when each had purchased a set of cooking equipment. Repeated use of the skill helped it get stronger, and at the moment Kasumi and Ukyo were the ones with the highest skill. Nabiki was offered but she had declined, saying five cooks in the group was unnecessary.

"I'm just glad I have some martial arts skills that can be useful in this game." Ranma said with a smile. "I wonder how many different kinds there are in the game?"

"Why? Do you think you can have more than one?" Nabiki asked.

"Why not? We can have more than one weapon equipped right? Why not more than one martial art style?"

Akane rolled her eyes but she smiled at the same time. "That's just like you Ranma, always looking for more fighting styles."

"What can I say? That's part of who I am. Just the idea of looking for more styles is getting me excited again. More excited than I have been for a while." The pigtailed boy told her.

His three fiancees smiled, glad to hear this. This was like seeing Ranma be his old self again, the Ranma they had all gotten attached to. He felt most in his element when he was using his body, and having his skills he worked so hard for taken away from him had left him with a void he tried to hide. He practiced the katas still, all the martial artists in the group did, but the game made him mostly go through the motions more than anything. He could do the moves but they lacked the proper power and speed whenever he did. Never before had he realized how much he had taken his ki for granted.

Without his best moves, and with his speed and strength reduced to beginner, it was like experiencing the Moxibustion of Weakness all over again. And he had no idea how to undo it. The game didn't allow ki or magic, so the only thing he could do was build it back up, and he wasn't sure he had the patience for that. Ranma had tried to work past it, enjoy fighting the only way he could here, but it still felt like he was missing something vital. Almost like he was missing an arm.

But now it seemed like that was no longer an issue. There were martial arts made specifically for the game now, which meant he could do moves with power and speed he was used to, at least quicker than he would have been able to do without the skill. And if he could get more than one style, he'd feel even more complete. After all, he was a fighter that couldn't be limited to only one method of combat, that's what Anything Goes was all about.

"Just be sure not to neglect your weapon skills Ranma. There's a reason this game is called Sword Art Online, not Martial Art Online." Kasumi spoke up.

"Yeah you're right, but still, I'm going to see if I can get more martial arts while I'm here."

"Save some for the rest of us Ranma." Akane told him, making Shampoo and Ukyo laugh.

"Now that the path is clear, let's keep going. If I remember correctly, there's a quest this way I'd like to get to before someone else does." Shampoo said, walking ahead and encouraged the others to follow her.

"I thought we were looking for Kirito." Kasumi said.

"We are, but I see no reason to not do this too."

"So what's this quest you have in mind?" Ukyo asked.

"You'll see when we get there."

"Maybe we should set up camp for the night." Kasumi offered, noting that the sun was going down and the artificial moons that provided light at night were glowing back from the direction of Urbus. They couldn't yet see one for a village ahead of them.

"Probably a good idea. And we can do a cook-out. I got some good meat from a bull earlier we can cook up, I hope." Akane said.

"Let's give it a try." Kasumi said, taking some cooking equipment out of her inventory.

Some wood gathered and a fire started, and the group sat down to an open barbeque, enjoying the smell of beef cooking. Ukyo was out looking for any plants they could use to season the meat with, and Ranma was already practicing some of his new moves on some trees, which is where they got the wood for the fire from.

It seemed a lot had changed since their first night in Aincrad and yet at the same time like nothing had changed at all.

_AN: Few things I want to say here to avoid any confusion. In Sword Art Online canon there was indeed a unique skill called Martial Arts, but like Dual Wielding only one player could have it. I'm thinking that since this story means the Ranma-verse and SAO-verse are combined that martial arts has a bigger impact than it did originally in SAO and therefore is not a unique skill but instead a limited skill. Kayaba would likely have known that martial arts was a big deal in parts of Japan and made an effort to incorporate it into the game on a bigger scale._

_For anyone wondering why I gave Ranma Martial Arts instead of Dual Wielding, the answer is simple, Ranma is better suited for Martial Arts and Kirito is better with Dual Wielding. And while I admit Ranma had faster reaction time than Kirito could and therefore should get Dual Wielding regardless, think of this first. Dual wielding is the art of using two swords together, which requires a person to have fast reaction time when using one-handed swords like a prerequisite. And longswords would be strategically better for such a fighting style. Kirito only said that he didn't know what any prerequisite for the skill was, not that there were none to begin with. So the way I see it, Dual Wielding wouldn't go to merely the player with the fastest reaction time overall, but the player with the fastest reaction time in terms of one-handed longsword skills. Which fits Kirito to a tee. If I'm wrong, well this is my story and I say that's how it is here._


End file.
